Statement

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Clean electricity sources are ones that do not emit greenhouse gases, toxic pollutants or radioactive waste when generating power. While all power generators and all electric grids entail environmental impacts that must be mitigated, only renewable energy can make clean electricity.

● We are living within the violent and unforgiving whirlwinds of the climate crisis. Wildfires have charred the land, rising temperatures are suffocating cities, and Canada’s wild and diverse ecosystems continue to degrade and perish. Scientific evidence is clear that the climate crisis is causing, and is caused by, ecosystem destruction, with emission of greenhouse gases (GHGs) by extracting, transporting and burning fossil fuels a primary factor. With collective will and organization, we can end this destruction and ensure a livable planet. Renewable energy systems will be central to sustainable societies in the future.

● Governments must stop promoting and subsidizing new fossil fuel infrastructure (including pipelines and gas plants) that will increase GHG emissions and keep energy systems controlled by large corporations and billionaires.

● Governments must also stop promoting and subsidizing new nuclear power development. Nuclear reactors take many years to build, leaving more time to burn fossil fuels, adding to greenhouse gas emissions. Nuclear reactors produce the most expensive electricity on the grid, increasing energy poverty. Nuclear fission produces wastes that remain dangerous for millennia containing newly created cancer-causing radioactive elements that risk long-term health and environmental impacts. Radioactivity cannot be turned off. Existing nuclear power plants must be phased out while nuclear industry workers are retrained to decommission nuclear sites and manage radioactive waste with future generations in mind. Their jobs will exist for many decades.

● Renewable energy is the cleanest, least expensive, safest, and fastest way to decarbonize electric grids, reduce energy poverty, ensure energy security, and support energy democracy, when it is complemented with:

○ energy efficiency (using less energy to produce the same output)

○ energy storage (saving energy for when the sun doesn’t shine or the wind doesn’t blow)

○ demand flexibility (allowing electricity users and grid operators to be responsive to the timing of electricity demands)

○ transmission interties (power lines that share electricity with neighboring grids, balancing supply and demand over a wider area)

● Although a source of renewable energy, big hydroelectric plants have historically displaced communities, created methyl mercury contamination of fish stocks, impeded the migration of fish and other freshwater species, and destroyed natural ecosystems. With ongoing fluctuating water levels in reservoirs, downstream shoreline erosion continues, causing hazards to waterway users such as fishermen and trappers, and disruptions of local economies. While mitigation and reparation efforts must continue, development of large dams must end in favor of lower impact run-of-the-river hydroelectric with fish passages, combined with wind and solar energy.

● Wind and solar energy paired with short and longer term energy storage technologies, or renewable geothermal energy, can provide “baseload” power – the minimum, continuous amount of electricity required to keep an electrical grid operational. These renewable energy systems eliminate the need for large thermal energy plants powered by burning non-renewable fossil or other organic fuels, or by fissioning uranium. Every dollar spent on new nuclear and fossil fuel infrastructure is a dollar not spent moving Canada toward a truly clean, renewable energy future.

● Renewable energy can support energy democracy. Indigenous nations are leading renewable energy developments across Canada, and sometimes partnering on larger projects to supply power to provincial grids. Communities have developed renewable energy cooperatives. Municipally-owned utilities with power generation increasingly favor renewable energy. All these renewable energy developments transition markets away from traditional sources of power and profit, make energy generation and management more participatory and equitable, and offer opportunities to organize communities and societies that can live within planetary boundaries.

Endorsing civil society groups
(This statement was first published on June 19, 2026. Groups and organizations will be added after they  sign the form .)