Clean Air Policy

The Green Party of Nova Scotia supports the right of human and other biological communities to clean air. While acknowledging the limitations for effective provincial control due to the regional and global impacts on air quality, the Green Party recognizes that we can do more in this province.

1. The Green Party will work toward a comprehensive strategy for clean air that incorporates intergovernmental cooperation to meet the goals for air quality set out in the Environmental Goals and Sustainable Prosperity Act.
2. Toward this goal of clean air, the Green Party supports:
   1. respect for the role of vegetation, land forms, and aquatic systems in our air quality and reflect their value within cost-benefit assessments and relevant legislation and regulations
   2. actions that acknowledge the key role in air quality played by natural forests and take corrective action through regulations on forestry practices and promotion of protection on private and Crown land.
   3. initiatives for corrective actions in biologically impoverished areas to promote healthy plant biodiversity
   4. conversions of inanimate surfaces to healthy vegetation through education on options for residence, business, and institutional properties
   5. reduction of our electricity reliance on fossil fuels through energy efficiency, energy conservation, and the increasing utilization of appropriate applications of renewable energies
   6. steps to reduce the impact of our transportation system on air quality
   7. requirements on industrial users to meet higher standards of air quality prior to exhausting or otherwise distributing their gaseous and particulate wastes
   8. steps to address the radon issue
      1. providing information for Nova Scotians on radon, testing services, and remediation options
      2. ensuring regulations for new construction require the latest practices that mitigate against radon infiltration from the ground or from well water
      3. testing for radon and corrective action in all government buildings, schools, and institutions
   9. an airshed approach to air quality and co-operation regionally, nationally and internationally toward clean air.