With this week’s damning Environment Canada report, showing the Harper government’s dismal record on climate change, it’s no wonder they want to avoid putting the environment on the upcoming G8/G20 agenda, Liberal Environment Critic David McGuinty said today.
“The numbers say it all: this government’s inaction on climate change means actual emissions will grow in absolute terms every year until 2012,” said Mr. McGuinty. “These appalling results come just weeks before the gathering of world leaders for the G8 and G20, so it’s easy to see why the government tried to conceal them from Canadians, and why Mr. Harper wants to avoid further condemnation from world leaders by keeping climate change off the summit agenda.”
The Environment Canada report – quietly posted on the departmental website Wednesday evening – confirms that the Harper government is not implementing any policies to substantially reduce Canada’s greenhouse gases – and doesn’t plan to.
“The Harper government continues to thumb its nose at the world’s most authoritative scientific bodies, other world leaders, the United Nations, the European Union, and a majority of Canadians, all of whom want action on the environment,” said Mr. McGuinty.
Prime Minister Harper has snubbed UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and Mexican President Felipe Calderón, both of whom wanted climate change on the G8/G20 agenda, and the European Union, which had asked for climate change to be discussed in advance of the next UN-organized international climate change summit, to be held in Cancun in November.
“This will be the first time that there is no gathering of world environment ministers in the lead-up to the G8, and Canada is the only G8 nation not to pledge our financial support for climate adaptation in vulnerable countries,” said Mr. McGuinty. “All of this adds up to a very grim picture of Canada in the eyes of the world – and Canadians can thank Stephen Harper for that.”
Unlike Stephen Harper, Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff has committed to leading a government that will make historic investments in clean energy, set an ambitious target of quadrupling Canada’s production of renewable energy by 2017, create a national carbon cap and trade system with hard targets and promote energy efficiency.
Highlight’s of this week’s Environment Canada report:
• The government told Canadians last year that its policies would reduce annual emissions by 52 megatonnes this year and 74 megatonnes in 2012 – but Environment Canada has confirmed that Canada’s GHG emissions will continue to rise every year through to 2012, even with federal measures in place.
• The government also claimed its Clean Air and Climate Change Trust Fund would reduce annual emissions by 16 megatonnes, starting in 2008 – but, according to the report, the government has now lowered its prediction significantly to 0.34 megatonnes and a further three megatonnes by 2015. As the federal Environment Commissioner pointed out in her December 2008 report, “Environment Canada cannot monitor or verify the Trust Fund results,” despite the Harper government’s $1.5-billion investment in the program.
• The main environmental initiatives in the federal economic stimulus package – the $800-million Clean Energy Fund and the $1-billion Green Infrastructure Fund – “are not expected to result in quantifiable reductions [in emissions] by 2012.”
