Mobilizing Canada for the Climate Emergency: Local Leadership in an Era of Policy Rollback

Join us for an invigorating talk by Seth Klein on the state of the climate crisis in 2026. How does the climate crisis represent a civilizational threat? What does it look like to move into genuine emergency mode? What is the state of play in Canada and globally? Are we going backwards or forwards? What would it look like to move into genuine emergency mode? Why has climate dropped in public and political attention, and what can we do about it, especially at the local level?

Seth Klein served for five years (2021-2025) as the founder, Team Lead and Director of Strategy of the Climate Emergency Unit (a 5-year project of the David Suzuki Institute). the Climate Emergency Unit’s mission was to initiate joint campaigns and coalitions to advance the emergency policy ideas proposed in Seth’s book. The overarching goal of the CEU was to press for the implementation of wartime-scale policies to confront the crisis, like we tackled an earlier existential threat – the rise of fascism during the Second World War. The project sought to press leaders into genuine emergency mode and to implement policies to dramatically reduce Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions by building coalition tables – federally, provincially, and sectorally – around transformative emergency ideas.

Prior to that, he served for 22 years (1996-2018) as the founding British Columbia Director of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, a public policy research institute committed to social, economic and environmental justice. More recently, he helped to launch and now serves on the board of the BC Society for Policy Solutions. He is the author of A Good War: Mobilizing Canada for the Climate Emergency (published by ECW press in 2020). He is an adjunct professor with Simon Fraser University’s Urban Studies program.

A social activist for over 40 years, Seth’s activism started as a high school student in the peace movement, and in the anti-racism movement while attending university. He has lived in BC since 1993, and currently lives in East Vancouver. A frequent media commentator on public policy issues, Seth regularly gives talks across the province and nationally. His research deals primarily with climate policy and climate justice, fiscal policy, taxation, welfare policy, poverty, inequality, economic security, and job creation.

This event will be presented in person at the Main Branch. It will also be streamed live via Zoom. Unfortunately, the session will not be recorded. All registered attendees will receive the Zoom link shortly before the event.

This event is co-presented with the New Westminster Climate Action Hub