Climate change remains the defining issue of the 21st Century. All world leaders have agreed that we must keep Greenhouse Gas emissions to less than 450 parts per million and the global temperature rise to less than 2° Centigrade above the historic average.

The premise of this talk is that focusing on ecological strategies to solve climate change leads to the setting of meaningless targets and support for ineffective policies like cap and trade. The biggest impediment to acting on the climate crisis is rigid adherence to the neoclassical, growth and consumption based economic model which virtually all governments across the planet support.

Economic reform is the path to dealing with climate change. We must transition to a model that creates economic prosperity by living within our ecological means. The model is called a Steady State Economy. In a Steady State Economy, prosperity is achieved by re-localizing everything and creating self-sufficient, resilient sustainable regions. It is an economy that closes the gap between rich and poor and it results in communities where all can afford a decent standard of living and where they have access to meaningful work through jobs created locally in the business, government and the not-for-profit sectors.

Jane Sterk has been Leader of the Green Party of BC since October 2007. She brings a wealth of experience, commitment and understanding to her position as leader, thanks in large part to her success in business, politics, government, and education. She has the innate ability to identify and address the issues that affect individuals, families and communities, and the determination to work toward the transitions we all must make if we’re to prosper and thrive in the future. Jane is an advocate for environmental responsibility and sustainability, social justice and fair trade, and evidence-based government policy.

Jane was a Councillor in the Township of Esquimalt from 2005 to 2008. She ran for the Green Party of BC in 2005 and 2009 and for the federal party in 2004.

From 2006 to 2009, Jane was an adjunct professor at University Canada West where she taught MBA courses in Business Environment and Organizational Behaviour. She owned a retail business in the computer industry which created 60 full time positions. Jane Sterk has a Ph.D. in Counselling Psychology and worked as a psychologist in private practice and in the public health system. She was also a teacher in the public school system.