How Harper made Canada a global “environmental pariah”

[Oscar]

Withdrawing Canada from Kyoto Protocol a purely political move, budget numbers reveal

[ http://www.greenparty.ca/en/media-relea ... et-numbers ]

February 19, 2016

(OTTAWA) – Numbers released today show the Harper government saved only $596,000 by legally withdrawing from the Kyoto Protocol and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), a move that made Canada an “environmental pariah” on the international stage, says Elizabeth May, Leader of the Green Party of Canada and MP (Saanich-Gulf Islands).

“Stephen Harper and the Conservative government set us back years on advancing critical climate change work when they withdrew Canada’s participation in Kyoto and the UNFCCC, ” Ms. May said. “The fact that Canada’s Parliamentary Budget Office had to take the Harper government to court in an attempt to reveal these cuts is astounding. I find it more shocking that Mr. Harper made Canada an international environmental pariah for relatively insignificant savings in the federal budget.”

Ms. May is now encouraging the Trudeau government to show Canada is serious once again about climate action.

“What matters now is what we do next. Canada’s climate target remains the abysmal one left behind by the previous government. I trust Finance Minister Bill Morneau will fulfill the Liberal campaign promise to end fossil fuel subsidies and set a minimum price on carbon in the 2016 budget,” Ms. May said. - 30 -

For more information or to arrange an interview, contact:

Daniel Palmer
Press Secretary | Attaché de presse
dan.palmer@greenparty.ca
(613) 614-4916

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Canada and the Kyoto Protocol

[ http://www.davidsuzuki.org/issues/clima ... and-kyoto/ ]

[ . . .no date given . . . ]

On February 16, 2005, the Kyoto Protocol officially entered into force, marking an important step forward in the fight against climate change.

The Kyoto Protocol is a historic milestone. It is the first and only binding international agreement that sets targets to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change.

Measures to fight climate change — which also involve using less energy — will improve public health, create new jobs and cut energy costs. Kyoto and Beyond: The Low-Emission Path to Innovation and Efficiency shows how Canada can dramatically reduce its greenhouse gas emissions, with massive savings in energy bills.

Studies show that implementing the Kyoto Protocol would stimulate the hi-tech and construction industries, create jobs, reduce health-care costs from air pollution and help protect our ecosystems (see The Bottom Line on Kyoto: Economic Benefits of Canadian Action). Some far-sighted industries are already using technologies and policies to reduce emissions even more rapidly than the Protocol requires.

The previous government of Canada developed a plan to meet our Kyoto targets, which included mandatory emissions cuts for large factories and power plants; a voluntary agreement with automakers to improve fuel efficiency in Canadian vehicles; a climate fund to purchase emission reduction credits from Canada and abroad; and a partnership fund to assist provinces and municipalities in making investments in infrastructure projects that would decrease greenhouse gas emissions. The plan, contrary to advice from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and Canada's Commissioner of the Environment, relied too heavily on incentives and voluntary initiatives. Nonetheless, the government never got the chance to implement or improve the plan before it lost the election in January 2006.

The current government has, unfortunately, moved Canada backwards on climate change. It announced that it would not even try to meet its Kyoto targets, and it reduced funding for Canada's climate change plan and cut most of Canada's climate change programs, including successful programs like the Wind Power Production Incentive, which subsidizes the installation of wind power, and Energuide for Houses, which gives incentives for Canadians to make their homes more energy efficient.

In December of 2011, the government of Canada became the first nation to withdraw from the Kyoto Protocol. Rather than working together with other nations to negotiate a more effective, follow-up agreement, Canada has elected to abandon the process. The government has instead adopted a GHG reduction target of 17 per cent below 2005 levels by 2020, This is much weaker than Canada's previous Kyoto commitment and sends the unfortunate message to the rest of the world that one of the top-ten global climate change polluters has pulled back from its efforts to reduce emissions.


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Harper government Kyoto withdrawal issues death sentence to world's most vulnerable

[ http://www.greenpeace.org/canada/en/blo ... log/38372/ ]

Blogpost by Christine Leclerc - December 12, 2011 at 21:08

Environment Minister Peter Kent, just back from COP17 in Durban, has announced Canada's pulling out of the Kyoto Protocol. The Kyoto Protocol is a cornerstone of international climate negotiations and plays a key role in addressing the climate crisis. The Kyoto Protocol was ratified by Canada in 2002, when the agreement became legally binding. Canada cannot consider itself off the hook.

Canada's withdrawal from Kyoto is grim news for the planet. "The Harper government has imposed a death sentence on many of the world's most vulnerable populations by pulling out of Kyoto," says Greenpeace climate and energy campaigner Mike Hudema.

The Harper government's inaction on climate change has negative consequences at home and on a global scale. "The decision to leave Kyoto behind destabilizes the promise of action on the climate crisis. This is a further signal that the Harper government is more concerned about protecting polluters than people," adds Hudema. We need action on the climate crisis, and we need it now. This means taking responsibility for our emissions and putting an end to Canada's fastest growing source of emissions: the tar sands.

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Kent Announces Canada is Legally Leaving the Kyoto Protocol

[ http://canadians.org/node/4033 ]

December 12, 2011 - 8:40 pm

I just returned from a media scrum in the foyer outside of our House of Commons (not the House of corporations) where Minister Kent announced Canada will legally leave the Kyoto Protocol.

Kent coached the announcement with plenty of key words about our ongoing commitment to the Durban platform, (the so called real way forward) a fair dose of fear mongering (as Megan Leslie referred to it) and that we are committed to taking climate change. But they were just that, words, words that hopefully mainstream media won’t buy this hook line and sinker. While this announcement may not come as a surprise, the reality is it is a big deal.

In a media statement released during Kent’s speech, the Council of Canadians responded to today's announcement:

“Harper’s wait-and-see climate policy is just as ridiculous as saying, we're going to wait for that big truck in the next lane to start driving safely before we start driving safely,” says Maude Barlow, National Chairperson, Council of Canadians. “The Harper government has transformed Canada into a serial laggard on the most pressing issue of our times, addressing climate change, which is severely damaging our international reputation.”

“While Kyoto is not perfect, at least it is legally binding and has clear benchmarks,” says Andrea Harden-Donahue, Energy and Climate Campaigner. “Canada leaving the Kyoto Protocol is not about achieving an agreement that keeps all polluters accountable, it is about allowing business as usual in Canada through an unaccountable deal with voluntary emission reduction targets and more loopholes.”

Following Kent’s statement to a crowd of media, there were responses from the NDP and Liberal Environment critics and the leader of the Green party.

Here’s the scoop:

Kent is lying:

Kent consistently referred to the costs of the Kyoto Protocol multi-billion dollar payments as a reason for legally exiting the agreement. He stated that Kyoto would cost $1600.00 for every Canadian family. This is very misleading, for a couple of reasons. First of all, there are no penalties that Canada would have to pay for failing to meet an emission target (one of the flaws of the Kyoto Protocol, it has a lack of teeth). Canada could continue to be part of the agreement and not meet our emission reduction targets, but continue to be part of the process including being compelled to submit progress reports to the UN on the state of our emissions and be part of a monitoring process. If Canada decided to switch gears and meet our Kyoto commitments, we would need to purchase carbon credits to meet our 2012 target. These are the costs Kent is referring to.

Secondly, the reason why we would need to purchase credits from carbon offset programs (which are a sham - we need domestic emission reductions) is because of years of government inaction on climate change. While Kent tries to pass this all off on the Liberals (who deserve their fair share) we’ve had the Conservatives in power since 2006 and our emissions continue to rise and the few programmes the Liberals had put in place to reduce emissions, the Conservatives have cut.

This announcement is really about not wanting to be held accountable to the monitoring and compliance aspects of the Kyoto Protocol which, despite Kent’s shiny portrayals of government action, will demonstrate how far Canada is lagging behind.

Canada’s international reputation is in tatters:

Kent insists that Canada is in good standing, that we share our position that the Durban platform is the way forward with the U.S., Australia, Japan, Norway amongst other countries (stay tuned for a blog tomorrow about the Durban platform). He insists that we entered the Durban climate talks in good faith and have been part of negotiating a promising deal.

To the contrary, Canada’s reputation is in tatters. Elizabeth May put it best, “the Canadian government leading anything related to climate change is practically a laughing matter at this point.” Having just returned from Durban, she reports that she had a meeting with UNFCCC Executive Secretary Christiana Figueres who had the clear understanding from her personal meetings with Minister Kent that Canada would not legally leave the Kyoto Protocol. This is just one example of how Canada entered the Durban talks negotiating in bad faith. We have little credibility anymore. A number of country delegates openly criticized Canada’s various cringe-inducing positions (Kent’s reference to ‘guilt payments’ is what did me in), something not frequently seen. This the first time Canada has ever legally left an international treaty.

What does this say for Canada’s democracy?

After all, there was a Parliamentary vote in support of the Kyoto Protocol. And while Harper has long decried the Kyoto Protocol, as Megan Leslie highlights, Harper certainly didn’t campaign on legally leaving the Kyoto Protocol, it was not part of his platform - so where is his mandate? The NDP is looking into options to at least have a Parliamentary debate on this decision. Perhaps civil society needs to look at our options as well.

Enough with the 2 percent

Just to add, I’m sick and tired of repetitively hearing about how Canada’s emissions are only 2% of global emissions, so why are we getting picked on about the tar sands (this came up again at today’s press conference). Let’s be clear. 2% is quite a bit for a country like ours, we have one of the highest per capita emissions rates in the entire world. The tar sands are set to comprise 11% of our national emissions by 2020 meaning that this percentage is only going up (and up). And beside, if countries like ours continue to hide behind these kinds of weak excuses, the UN climate talks will only continue to stagnate.

Andrea Harden-Donahue's blog
Energy & Climate Jusstice Campaigner
[ http://canadians.org/blogs/andrea-harden-donahue ]

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