30 Citizen Advocates in Ottawa to Lobby For a Carbon Fee for the 8th time And welcome two climate cyclists with a carbon fee petition with over 28,000 signatures For Immediate Release: Friday, May 29, 2015 Contact: Cathy Orlando at [email protected] 705-929-4043 Ottawa, ON: On June 1 and June 2, thirty Canadians will converge on Parliament Hill with the objective of delivering this message to parliamentarians: put a national price on carbon pollution that returns the revenue to households, and Canada can lower heat-trapping emissions while adding jobs to the economy. Canada's Ecofiscal Commission released a report in April 2015 “The way forward”. Canada’s Ecofiscal Commission used an economic model that analyzed where Canada would be in 2020 if regulation or carbon pricing were used to manage carbon pollution. The carbon pricing model they used was revenue-neutral. In this model, Canada’s gross domestic product (GDP) in 2020 is 3.7% better under carbon pricing than it is under a regulatory approach. On Sunday, May 31 Citizens’ Climate Lobby (CCL) volunteers will meet and strategize for Election 2015. They will be connected to CCL volunteers in 61 ridings across Canada via videoconference. Guest speakers at the Sunday Citizens’ Climate Lobby meeting in Ottawa include:  Aaron Freeman of Greenpac: GreenPAC is a groundbreaking Canadian organization motivated by a simple belief — that Canada needs strong political leaders who are driven to take action to protect the environment. To achieve this, they will endorse, elect, support, and celebrate strong environmental leaders from all political parties.  Carrie Saxifrage wrote the book The Big Swim, described as “Eat, Pray and Love for the climate era” by environmental activist Tzeporah Berman. Carrie will inspire the volunteers to tell their own stories. On the Monday and Tuesday, 30 citizens will lobby over 20 parliamentarians for carbon-fee-and-dividend. At noon on Tuesday, June 2 at the Centennial Flame on Parliament Hill, they will welcome two climate cyclists from Clearwater BC, Jean Nelson and Keith McNeill. They began a ride from Toronto to Ottawa on May 23 to promote a petition for carbonfee -and-dividend that has over 28, 000 signatures. “Carbon fee-and-dividend is a way to control human-caused global warming that is advocated by James Hansen, one of the world's leading climate scientists,” McNeill explains. “A fee would be charged on all fossil fuels, in a manner similar to a carbon tax. Unlike a carbon tax, however, the money would not go into general government revenue but would be distributed to every adult as equal and repeating dividends.” Cathy Orlando, the National Manager of Citizens’ Climate Lobby Canada adds, “Canada is a climate laggard. Our latest submissions to the international community for reducing CO2 emissions are weak, lack details and do not include any CO2 mitigation plans for the oil and gas industry. A transparent price on carbon will create jobs and help Canada do our fair share internationally to reduce GHG emissions”. Since September 2010, Citizens' Climate Lobbyists (CCLers) in Canada have educated themselves about climate change and carbon pricing through regularly scheduled teleconference calls and conferences. This is the eighth time since November 2011, CCLers have gathered in Ottawa to lobby parliamentarians for carbon-fee-and-dividend, their carbon pricing policy of choice. Over the past 4.5 years, CCL volunteers have lobbied 90 federal parliamentarians and about 45 provincial parliamentarians in Nova Scotia and Ontario for carbon-fee-and-dividend, many repeatedly. CCL is a non-partisan international organization. Members of CCL’s International’s advisory board include: George P. Shultz, former US secretary of state; Dr. James Hansen, retired Director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies; Dr. Katharine Hayhoe, Canadian Climate Scientist at Texas Tech University; and others. CCL believes politicians don’t create political will, they respond to it. CCL believes citizens who are well trained, organized by ridings and with a good system of support can influence the political process. Our volunteers want Canada to lead the fight to save the global climate, and they want to help politicians achieve this noble goal. -30-