Prime Minister Stephen Harper is off-side with the world’s leaders on yet another global issue after rebuffing UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon’s plea to make climate change a focus of the G8/G20 agenda, Liberal MPs said today.
“The Secretary General came to deliver a message on behalf of many world leaders: climate change must be a priority at the G8/G20,” said Liberal Foreign Affairs Critic Bob Rae. “The Prime Minister flatly refused. Stephen Harper is isolating Canada on a world issue that we can’t afford to ignore. The environment is too important an economic issue to be left to the margins.”
The Prime Minister is using the economy as an excuse not to talk about climate change at the summits of world leaders to be hosted on Canadian soil in late June. His spokesperson, Dimitri Soudas, said climate change would only be discussed “on the margins” of the summits. For the first time ever, there will be no meeting of environment ministers in advance of the G8.
“Why does Stephen Harper refuse to see the connection between the environment and the economy?” asked Liberal Environment and Energy Critic David McGuinty. “By failing to show leadership in the fight against climate change, Canada is missing out on a new generation of clean energy jobs that come from building an energy-efficient economy.”
Mr. Harper’s refusal to address this global priority comes after US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton expressed her concerns that reproductive rights must be part of any successful maternal health initiative. In a meeting yesterday, the Secretary General and Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff agreed that support for reproductive health services are necessary for meeting the Millennium Development Goals.
“Prime Minister Harper is poisoning our international relationships by infecting world issues with his domestic political calculus,” said Mr. Rae. “By removing reproductive rights from his maternal health initiative to please his right-wing base, he’s made it difficult for other countries to support his proposal – and now he’s breaking world consensus on climate change to suit his personal ideology.”
Canada is the only G8 nation to not pledge financial support for climate adaptation in vulnerable countries, as per the Copenhagen accord. Mr. Ignatieff shared the Secretary General’s concern that Canada needs to take a greater leadership role on this issue and expressed his desire to see Canada contribute its fair share to funding.
A Liberal motion passed by the House of Commons last month called on the government to provide our fair share of new climate change financing for developing companies and phase out inefficient fossil fuel subsidies.
