The Council of Canadians has announced that during the 2010 Cancun climate summit, over a dozen communities in Canada will hold People's Assemblies on Climate Justice.

"People's Assemblies on Climate Justice emerged during the failing Copenhagen negotiations as a vehicle for people to come together and talk about real and false solutions to the climate crisis," says Andrea Harden-Donahue, Energy and Climate Justice Campaigner with the Council of Canadians. "The assemblies taking place across Canada are in keeping, bringing people together on a community basis to have a dialogue on climate justice and how to transform this into local action."

With predictions that a deal coming out of Cancun is unlikely and the recent killing of the Climate Change Accountability Act by the Senate, local actions that address the climate crisis and advance equity are increasingly being seen as critical to advancing climate justice.

According to the release, these local actions include discussions on topics including:

climate debt, human and ecological rights and how unsustainable and inequitable production, consumption and trade patterns contribute to the climate crisis... Campaigning for public and community ownership of renewable energy, challenging a proposed polluting project and supporting a "transition town" are potential areas of action.

Hopefully a disastrous year for government and business action on climate change can conclude with concerete announcements from communities across the country. 

Will this produce actual, new community energy projects or transitions towns? Or boost countermovements to the expanding fossil and business advocacy by government?

Read the full Council of Canadians press release.