15 APRIL 2015

(Fredericton, NB) Premier Brian Gallant committed to make a transition to a lower carbon economy with Premiers from across the country in the final declaration from the Québec Summit on Climate Change yesterday.

"The Premier has a tremendous opportunity to drive job creation by reducing New Brunswick's dependence on fossil fuels," said David Coon, MLA for Fredericton-South and the Green Party leader. "The refurbishment of our building stock's energy use, the development of our abundant sources of renewable fuels and renewable power, and growing the market for low carbon products and technologies would be a job creation bonanza," he said.

A study done for the New Brunswick government found that strategically investing in energy efficiency alone could create more than 1,300 jobs a year, every year, for the next 15 years.

"We have the know-how to do this in New Brunswick, we just need the policies to make it so," said Coon.

The Green Party leader was part of the New Brunswick delegation to the Premiers' Climate Summit hosted in Quebec City by Premier Couillard.

In their final declaration, the Premiers recognized the scientific consensus calling for significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions to limit global warming to less than 2C. Countries will come together at the UN Climate Summit in Paris in December to negotiate the scale of reductions needed to achieve this goal.

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