Climate change - more than a slogan

Canadians have a very clear choice in front of them. We have a Liberal leader who is considered an international hero by environmentalists in the forefront of the fight against climate change. And we have a Conservative - I hesitate to use the word "leader" - who has opposed action on climate change for years and is still, in fact, doing that.

From Embassy, December 14, 2005

Dion Hailed Saviour of Kyoto Protocol
Canada's Environment Minister is being hailed an international "hero" who withstood fierce resistance to find agreement to extend mandatory pollution limits on most of the world's worst offenders.

Environmentalists are praising Stéphane Dion, chair of the UN Climate Change Conference, and his advisors for clinching a deal that will commit 35 industrialized nations to deeper greenhouse gas emission reductions when the Kyoto Protocol targets elapse in 2012. The United States and Australia are the only major emitters that refused to sign the pact.

"Stéphane Dion should go down as a world hero for making this happen," says John Bennett, a senior policy advisor for the Sierra Club of Canada. "All credit goes to him and his negotiators."

The deal is the crowning achievement of the two-week international summit in Montreal that finished in the early hours of Dec. 10.


A second big win is the adoption of a rulebook that makes the Kyoto Protocol fully operational, including a compliance mechanism that was being bogged down by Saudi Arabia. It is believed the oil-producing nation was attempting to show dissatisfaction with a global shift to alternative energies. Another positive outcome is a move to strengthen the Clean Development Mechanism, which brings developing countries into the carbon-trading market.

Compare to Harper's work on climate change.
From Global Warming update — Harper at G8 (June 4, 2007)

Harper appears to be sticking to his position on "intensity-based targets," which may mean a slowing in the rate of greenhouse gas emissions but does not mean less of them in real terms any time soon. The world would have more greenhouse gas emissions in years to come rather than less of them under this proposal. The Europeans want hard targets for actual reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. Harper, however, has promised intensity-based targets to the oil industry, and his government has promised tar sands developers exemptions from even these.

Environmentalists are also concerned the Harper government plans to use 2006 as the base year for calculating future reductions. The Europeans are calling for using 1990 as the base year, since 1990 was the base year for Kyoto. "Mr. Baird's plan makes the Canadian targets less strict," wrote Andrew Mayeda in The Ottawa Citizen on Saturday, June 2. "The Canadian plan also uses 'intensity targets' which do not guarantee that overall emissions will fall."

Harper and the Conservatives have long opposed action on climate change and denied its necessity. Like the Bush Republicans, the Harper Conservatives are heavily backed by the oil industry and have always opposed environmental restrictions that reduce industry profitability. Over the years, they have used a number of front groups and public relations firms to argue their case. With the Conservatives running a minority government, they are using the advantages of public office to make a case they have advanced for years in opposition...

Stephen Harper expressed his feelings about the Kyoto accord in a 2002 letter apparently written when Harper was leader of the defunct Canadian Alliance party. In the letter, he called Kyoto a "socialist scheme" designed to suck money out of rich countries. "We're gearing up now for the biggest struggle our party has faced since you entrusted me with the leadership," Harper's letter says. "I'm talking about the 'battle of Kyoto' — our campaign to block the job-killing, economy-destroying Kyoto accord." [my emphasis]

If Canadians are truly concerned about the future of planet Earth, the next federal election will give us the power to be part of the solution instead of the problem.

The challenge of course is that the majority of us - the people who do care - are split four ways between supporting the Liberals, the Greens, the NDP and the Bloc. While those who don't care - or who can kid themselves into thinking Harper is actually doing something - all vote Conservative.


We really need to start working on this split. The "gesture of cooperation" between Dion and Elizabeth May was a good start:

The planet has reached its limit. The human-caused damage to our natural environment is devastating. Currently, our two parties agree that urgent action is needed. So, too, do the vast majority of Canadians. Yet our electoral system could return to government the only political party that does not believe action is required urgently....

We admit we are different from most adversarial, political leaders. We respect each other. We will always put the country and the planet first.

Is it too much to hope that Jack Layton will start taking Elizabeth May's phone calls?