At UN climate talks, Canada must acknowledge loss and damage

[Oscar]

At UN climate talks, Canada must acknowledge loss and damage

[ http://rabble.ca/news/2015/06/un-climat ... and-damage ]

By Leehi Yona | June 12, 2015

As the world begins to hammer out a draft for the next climate deal at the United Nations climate change negotiations in Bonn, Germany, Canada stands in the way of progress.

Insufficient and out of touch

Our government has put forward its commitment for the upcoming Paris COP21 climate negotiations in December. Canada's commitment, or Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC) in U.N. jargon, is to reduce its total greenhouse gas emissions by a paltry 3.6 per cent compared to 1990 levels.

What's more, out of 90 proposed mechanisms behind this reduction, the direct impacts of 60 of these have not yet been defined. In fact, Canada stated that it was banking on much of these reductions to come from "indirect programs" such as "behavioural changes."

Needless to say, this commitment falls far, far short of what we are required to do according to the world's leading scientists, staying within a total 2 C threshold of warming.

In fact, just last week a South African negotiator pointed out this discrepancy, and asked Canada if it would reconsider submitting a more ambitious INDC, one that is "required by science."

However, Canadian negotiators have repeatedly asserted that Canada has no plans to reconsider its submission, which it calls "ambitious but achievable."

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