Climate change chosen as Canadian Press News Story of the Year for 2019

OTTAWA – Climate change has been chosen as the 2019 Canadian Press News Story of the Year.

The story was chosen by reporters and editors across the country in a year that saw warnings about Canada warming twice as fast as the rest of the world and the imposition of a national price on pollution.

Parliament also voted to declare a climate emergency and climate became one of the few real issues that impacted the October federal election.

Catherine Abreu, the head of Climate Action Network Canada, says "2019 was like the year of climate awakening for Canada."

In late September, hundreds of thousands of Canadians took to the streets across the country in one of the largest mass protests in Canadian history, adding to an international climate strike movement founded around Swedish teenager Greta Thunberg.

At the same time, policies restricting carbon emissions have sparked protests in Canada's fossil-fuel-producing provinces.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 17, 2019.