To help your community pay for climate costs, you can ask your local (municipal) government to calculate its climate costs and join the Sue Big Oil lawsuit.
Take a moment to write a letter, email, phone, text, or engage your elected officials on social media. Consult your local government’s website to find out who your elected officials are and to get their contact information. Let us know when you do reach out to them. We would love to hear how they respond.
Here are some points that you can include in a letter. You can use these as guidance, but it’s best to rewrite them in your own words:
- Share how you feel about the risks of climate change. Describe how climate change is affecting you and/or people you know.
- Ask whether they know how much climate change is costing your community, and how much your local government will need to spend to avoid current and future climate impacts, and ask them to share that information with you. You could mention the types of climate risks facing your community, which may include wildfires, floods, heat waves, extreme weather events, sea level rise, and drought, depending on where you live.
- Emphasize that your community cannot afford the skyrocketing costs of climate change.
- Express concern that fossil fuel companies and their investors make billions of dollars in profits every day, selling products that cause climate change, but pay none of the costs of climate change. Ask if they agree that fossil fuel companies should pay their fair share.
- Ask your local government to commit to set aside $1 per resident to work with other BC local governments on a class action lawsuit to ensure that fossil fuel companies pay their fair share of climate costs, rather than leaving all climate costs to taxpayers.
- Make it clear that you are a resident of the municipality or regional district that they represent, and that they have a duty to keep you safe and protect your tax dollars from future climate costs.
Send your letter to your Mayor and Council. If you live in an unincorporated area, send your letter to your Regional District Directors.
You can use and adapt these same points if you are phoning your local government, or even reaching out to them on social med
