Now in its third year, Give it Up for the Earth! is centred on a pledge to individual climate action, and a call for more far-reaching national climate policy. Christians across Canada collect postcards and signatures as a demonstration of support for increased federal government action.
In the Christian season of Lent, “people give up coffee, candy, but there’s not a whole lot of depth to that. This campaign offers a deeper level,” CPJ’s Senior Policy Analyst, Karri Venn-Munn says. “This year’s campaign challenges the Federal government’s continued financing of the fossil fuel sector, which is inconsistent with the Paris goals.” The Paris climate agreement is the 2015 landmark international accord aimed at combating climate change.
Speaking about the recent federal budget, Karri remarks that there seems to be an effort to hold on to what the government has already put in place so far: “they see real risk in losing the steps forward that have been made, and it seems to me, that this concern gets in the way of doing more and of communicating what has been done so far.”