RCA Resiliency Webinar – Key Learnings
The RCA hosted its first of a series of webinars on Tuesday, September 22. Over 50 attendees engaged with experts from across Canada and Europe who shared advice on building resilient systems. Resiliency, defined by Merriam Webster, is an ability to recover from or adjust easily to adversity or change. The pandemic has showed us the weakness in our systems and we now have the opportunity to look into making these changes.
The first speaker, Vanessa Corkal, was one of the authors of Green Strings: Principles and conditions for a green recovery from COVID-19 in Canada. The report outlined seven principles for a green recovery in Canada and action that could be taken on the federal level to make the recovery more resilient and equitable. She also shared ideas to localize the recovery and bring partnerships and environmental policies to the forefront. The principles include:
- Support only companies that agree to plan for net-zero emissions by 2050
- Make sure funds go towards jobs and stability, not executives and shareholders
- Support a just transition that prepares workers for green jobs
- Build up the sectors and infrastructure of tomorrow
- Strengthen and protect environmental policies during recovery
- Be transparent and accountable to Canadians
- Put people first and leave no one behind
Natalia Papú Carrone is a Research Analyst with Circle Economy based in the Netherlands and brought a unique European perspective to the webinar. Her ideas centered around decentralization to broaden participation and distribute decision making. She shared examples of how this worked with EcoCentres and urban farming in Ecuador and circular textile manufacturing in India. She also talked about adjusting systems that hinder resilience and implementing changes that support flexible labour contracts, which can go a long way to increase capacity for innovation and adapt to short response rates.
The third speaker, Shannon Miedema, from the City of Halifax shared an inspiring story of HalifACT 2050 the city’s aggressive climate change action plan that was released during the pandemic. She spoke of the leadership from the City Council to make the plan a priority and dedicating resources and funds to reach the target for a net-zero municipality by 2030. This work was not easy, but allowed the community to come together to engage in some difficult conversations about priorities and how they would get to where they needed to go. Their research showed that a low carbon future is a lower cost future, and would have a net benefit of $22 Billion over 30 years with savings from avoided energy and maintenance costs along with increased energy generation revenues.
Placed in the context of this webinar discussion, the COVID-19 pandemic is an opportunity to do things differently and transition to a green and resilient future. Presentations are now available online.
Be sure to check out the upcoming slate of webinars from the RCA. On October 22, we’ll hear from experts across Canada on their jurisdictions’ policy advancement toward a circular economy and on November 17 companies will share their work in Chemical Recycling. For more info and to register: https://recycle.ab.ca/workshop/rcas-2020-webinar-series/
