It’s frustrating sometimes. There’s so much talk about what we can do down the road to mitigate climate change that there’s less talk — and certainly little action — when it comes to taking meaningful action today. Earlier this month a bunch of Canadian oil companies put out an elaborate report talking about plans to build an integrated carbon capture, delivery and storage network that would cost many billions to start and would take many years to complete. The ICO2N, a group of 15 of Canada’s largest industrial companies, wants the government to share in a substantial part of the risk, even though the network would allow for enhanced oil recovery (ultimately meaning more oil sucked from the ground and more profits for the industry).

Now, I’m not opposed to such a scheme. We need to capture and store CO2 down the road as part of a larger climate mitigation strategy, and if any of this is going to happen it will require the creation of a significant carbon tax to make the investment worthwhile. But these kinds of ambitious projects, while necessary, also tend to detract from more immediate solutions because they give politicians something to talk about in speeches and give the public the perception that something is being done — when, in reality, what’s being talked about as a silver bullet is just a concept begging for money and nowhere near having an impact.

Then I read about a new law passed in Germany that, among other things, will require all new homes built in the country to get 14 per cent of their energy from renewables. The law is primarily targeted at home heating, whether for space heating or hot water, and opens up huge opportunities for solar thermal and geothermal markets. In the words of Germany’s federal environmental agency: “The heatig sector is the sleeping giant of renewable energy.” According to RenewableEnergyAccess.com, “Existing houses will also have to be remodeled to incorporate renewable-energy-based heating systems from 2010 on. For old houses, 10 per cent of the heating and domestic hot water energy needs will have to be provided by renewables.” With the stroke of a pen, you get much-needed change. It’s an illustration of how we can start taking serious action today using existing technologies. All we have to do is, like Germany and Spain, give a legislative nudge supported by incentives that instantly spark large-scale societal changes.

The market alone isn’t going to solve our problems, nor are Canada’s oil companies. Yet somehow, the proposal of a multibillion-dollar plan — one that’s years away from implementation and which encourages the production and consumption of oil — grabs more attention than a simple pen stroke that, like seatbelt legislation or no-smoking legislation, would have greater impact sooner.