PRESIDENT’S PAGE
GIANCARLO DA-RÉ President
president@msumcmaster.ca 905.525.9140 x23885
Since the first Assessment Report prepared by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in 1990, the world’s leading scientists have agreed on the need for international cooperative action to prevent a climate catastrophe. Fast-forward 31 years; 97% of scientists agree that the changing climate is due to human activities, and the race to zero CO2e emissions has never been so critical. The world has until 2050 to equitably get our collective 51 billion tons of annually emitted greenhouse gases to zero. This is the last generation who can act in time to save our planet. The climate emergency should be viewed by all governments as a matter of national security. Reducing global emissions feels like a monumental task - and in fairness, it is. The world uses more than 4 billion gallons of oil every day. A gallon of oil contains more energy than a stick of dynamite and costs less than a can of
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pop. It feels like the odds are heavily stacked against a movement away from oil dependency. However, the COVID-19 pandemic made it abundantly clear that systems are not as static as we may have believed. The rapid, far-reaching, and unprecedented change in all aspects of society all occurred in the name of remote work/school for human and societal safety. There isn’t a more pressing safety concern for all of humanity than the impending climate catastrophe. Let this be our motivation to effect immediate change in how we choose to structure our world. One does not need to look farther than our own campus community to see how students, staff, and researchers have actualized on hope during dark times. From the onset of the pandemic, student leaders have transformed dozens of campus-based services, into fully functioning online models of programming, advocacy, and support. In addition, I am inspired by the tremendous care of those who refuse to back down from the fight for an equitable carbon-neutral future, in spite of overwhelming personal, scholastic, or financial challenges brought on by COVID-19. The virtual McMaster Climate Strike held on March 19 was a perfect example of students not losing hope and continuing to push for a change. While the climate emergency has been resoundingly proven by science, any solution that stands a chance of keeping global temperature increases below 1.5˚C must include more than science. Ergo, divesting from fossil fuel companies is absolutely necessary. It is an essential step in the process. That
The President’s Page is a space sponsored and used by the McMaster Students Union (MSU) Board of Directors (BoD) to communicate with the student body. It functions to highlight the Board’s projects, goals, and agenda for the year, as well as the general happenings of the MSU.
is why, in addition to directing the MSU’s financial advisors to fully divest our investment portfolios from fossil fuel companies before the end of the 2020/21 fiscal year, our team has also engrained the fight for climate justice into MSU advocacy priorities to both provincial and federal governments. Alongside our provincial partners at the Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance (OUSA), the MSU helped pass OUSA’s first policy paper on Environmental Sustainability. The MSU delegation played a central role in pushing for bold and ambitious targets in the policy paper, including recommendations that the provincial government mandate all post-secondary institutions to implement net-zero carbon emission standards by 2026; and that the provincial government incentivize post-secondary institutions, through Strategic Mandate Agreements, to begin the process of divestment immediately and fully divest by no later than 2026. The policy paper also includes recommendations related to campus ecosystems, transportation, waste management, and resource procurement. Federally, the MSU spearheaded the first-ever national poll to gauge the perspectives of undergraduate students on the climate emergency. Inspired by the 2019 Abacus Data poll, “Is climate change ‘an emergency’ and do Canadians support a made-in-Canada Green New Deal”, the Undergraduates of Canadian Research-Intensive Universities (UCRU) polled students from across Canada. The data, which is still being analyzed, will inform provincial and federal
GIANCARLO DA-RÉ President
GRAEME NOBLE
VP (Administration)
advocacy efforts by student associations in coming years. As MSU president, I am proud to say that I have been heavily involved in conversations for the past year-and-a-half related to waste diversion, progress targets & reporting, water access, student sustainability networks, fossil fuel divestment, sustainable transportation, campus energy use, sustainability research support, and sustainable governance on campus. We need a wholistic campus climate justice plan to get McMaster to zero emissions immediately. If, as a species, we plan to get our 51 billion tons of annually emitted greenhouse gases to zero by 2050, we need rapid progress on all of these themes, and more. We need better support and funding for grassroots student-led sustainability initiatives. We need to defend the rights and titles of Indigenous peoples, who have given the world precious time by fighting on the ground against new fossil fuel developments across Canada. We need to pressure our governments to develop a just transition plan, so no one gets left behind. This isn’t a fight against good jobs or economic growth, indeed we need it all. Just like during the COVID-19 pandemic, we need everyone to do their part. This is the greatest challenge humanity has ever faced. And yet, students have shown that we have never had greater reason to believe that we will succeed in the fight for a sustainable future. For its part, the MSU will completely divest from all fossil fuel companies by the end of this April 2021 and will prioritize the fight for climate justice in its advocacy efforts.
RYAN TSE
VP (Education)
JESSICA ANDERSON VP (Finance)