Former Sarnia-Lambton federal Green Party candidate Peter Smith delivering a recent copy of the IPCC report to Sarnia-Lambton MP Marilyn Gladu's office. October 24, 2018. (Photo by Colin Gowdy, BlackburnNews)

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Two former Sarnia-Lambton Green Party candidates have called on MP Marilyn Gladu to “champion and support” updated climate change policies.

Peter Smith and Kevin Shaw delivered a copy of the recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report to staff at Gladu’s constituency office Wednesday morning.

Smith also delivered a letter asking the Conservative MP to support federal legislation bringing climate policies in line with the urgency called for in the report.

“We need to make this a nonpartisan issue — this is much bigger than party politics. We need to put something in place that all parties can agree to so we have a consistent plan,” said Smith. “This has got to last us for the next 30-40 years and we can’t afford to be going off in one direction and then another every time we elect a new government. Take the party politics out of it and let’s get the experts to decide rather than the politicians.”

Gladu, who’s in Ottawa until the weekend, responded saying Smith is right about saying science shouldn’t be a partisan issue.

The Conservative MP, who’s been on a climate change caucus within the party and is currently working on the Tory climate change policy for the upcoming election, said she’s a climate change advocate.

“I would say that I have been making those efforts,” said Gladu. “I see that [Smith] is calling on me to bring forward, or support legislation. Certainly, in opposition, I can’t bring forward the legislation, but there isn’t anything right now on the docket but we’ll look for that.”

Smith said the consequences of not doing anything are pretty horrific, and that the cost of not addressing the issue far outweighs the cost of cleaning up the environment.

“I think the general public gets it, but what they don’t like is the idea that they’re going to have to pay for it,” said Smith. “So you get this sort of dichotomy where, yes, they want something done, they’d like somebody else to do it, and then the politicians try to weigh-in and say ‘Well I can do it and it won’t cost you anything,’ and that’s untrue.”

The IPCC report said by the end of the century, about 10 million people will be affected by high water levels, a number of countries won’t be able to feed their populations, and the global temperature will increase by 3 C to 4 C.

Smith and Shaw’s effort is part of a greater national campaign organized by the Council of Canadians and 350.org.