The Alberta Green Economy Network (AGEN) is a network of ~50 labour, NGO, green business, and First Nations partners that works to support Alberta’s transition to a low-carbon economy. AGEN coordinates the joint efforts of its diverse network of members, supporters and allies to run public education and advocacy programs, submit policy recommendations to municipal and provincial government bodies, and foster relationships between diverse stakeholders within the green economy.
Since its founding in July 2015, AGEN has led several successful collaborative programs:
In September 2015, AGEN submitted a report to the Government of Alberta’s Climate Change Advisory Panel. The report outlined how Alberta could create more than 54,000 jobs per year through carbon reducing actions, such as science-based emission reduction targets in line with other provincial jurisdictions, a target of 100% renewable energy by 2050, an energy efficiency strategy that would employ tens of thousands of Albertans while lowering energy bills, and a carbon price starting in 2016 to help fund green jobs, retrofits and transit.
In April 2016, AGEN released a report in partnership with Greenpeace Canada and Gridworks Renewable Energy Inc. called 100,000+ Jobs: Getting Albertans Back to Work Building the Green Economy. The report outlined how Alberta has the potential to create over 145,000 new jobs in the green economy with the right policies and investments, which would put Albertans to work right away, diversify the economy, reduce pollution and health care costs, and build stronger and more resilient communities.
From June to September of 2016, AGEN ran a public engagement and education campaign called Solar4All with Calgary Climate Action Network, Greenpeace Canada, and Keepers of the Athabasca. We met with thousands of Albertans in ~20 different ridings to engage them about solar-friendly government policies as well as individual and community-owned solar energy. We had over 9,000 Albertans sign our petition and over 3,000 Albertans sign our postcards to their own MLA, urging the government to prioritize communities and small-scale community solar energy projects in its move to renewables.
In September 2016, AGEN submitted a proposal to Alberta’s Energy Efficiency Advisory Panel. In this proposal, AGEN strongly urged the Alberta government to prioritize solar energy in the form of micro-generation and small-scale community solar energy projects. The proposal outlined how these individually and community-owned renewable energy systems can play an important role in Alberta’s energy future.
From September to December 2016, AGEN met with over two dozen members of Alberta’s Cabinet and Legislative Assembly in Edmonton and Calgary to spread the word about our Solar4All campaign to promote community-led and -owned solar projects, hand deliver over 2,000 postcards signed by constituents of these MLAs in support of our campaign, and discuss our policy positions on government regulations on renewable energy in Alberta.
From November to December 2016, AGEN worked with its member organizations, supporters and allies to design new programs for the organization to run in 2017: the Alberta Green Jobs Initiative and the Neighborhood Green Economy Series.