Stephen Leahy

BROOKLIN, Canada, Oct 20 2006 (IPS) — Canada has officially turned its back on the Kyoto Protocol and climate change in its new “green plan” introduced Thursday, environmentalists say.

The new Conservative government’s environmental legislation called the Clean Air Act does not offer specific reduction targets other than a goal of cutting emissions of greenhouse gases 45-65 percent below 2003 levels by 2050.

“It’s a green scam, a delaying tactic that involves three more years of consultations,” said Claire Stockwell of the Canadian Youth Climate Coalition.

“We have already had six years of consultations and under existing legislation we could regulate emissions of greenhouse gases tomorrow,” Stockwell told IPS.

About 40 youth groups formed the non-partisan coalition this past September because of the realisation that the Conservative government will not comply with Canada’s commitments under the Kyoto Protocol, she said.

The coalition organised mock “funerals for the future” in 14 Canadian cities last week to protest the lack of urgent action on “the most pressing issue of our time”.

Government officials have said consultations will be held with industry before putting a cap in place to reduce air pollutants starting only in 2010, then a fixed cap to reduce greenhouse gases (GHGs) by 2020.

“It’s an elaborate framework for procrastination,” said Dale Marshall, a policy analyst for the David Suzuki Foundation, an environmental group.

The new Clean Air Act will actually lead to increased pollution because it weakens several existing laws, Marshall said in a statement.

“Instead of acting to cut pollution, the government is offering hollow rhetoric as a smokescreen for ignoring existing laws that could make a real difference if they were enforced,” he said.

One of the laws to be changed is the existing Canadian Environmental Protection Act.

This is not only unnecessary, but could open the door to legal challenges to the federal government’s right to regulate GHG emissions and air pollutants, said Matthew Bramley, director for climate change at the Pembina Institute, an environmental group.

“It is clear this government is not interested in regulating greenhouse gases anytime soon,” Bramley said in an interview.

Green Party of Canada leader Elizabeth May called the act “nothing more than a PR campaign designed to confuse the public” about refusing to meet Canada’s Kyoto obligations.

The new plan makes no reference to the Kyoto Protocol and Canada’s international commitments to immediately reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by six percent below 1990 levels.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Environment Minister Rona Ambrose have previously dismissed Canada’s Kyoto commitments as impossible to achieve.

“Although difficult, with the right leadership Canada could meet its international obligations,” said Stockwell.

Stockwell also questions why the one concrete GHG reduction target uses 2003 emissions as the baseline when the international community uses 1990. Canada’s emissions have climbed more than 25 percent since 1990, mainly due to its booming energy sector.

Indeed, the same day Ambrose introduced the government’s “green plan”, Harper was telling business executives that Canada is “an emerging energy superpower” and that oil production from its oil sands will increase from one million barrels a day to three or four million by 2015.

Reports show that the oil sands expansion will account for nearly half of the projected growth of GHG emissions between 2003 and 2010.

Ambrose defended the act, saying: “These targets would exceed those proposed by the previous government and will produce real environmental progress here in Canada.”

And she said Canada will harmonise vehicle emissions standards with those of the United States over the next 12 months.

Calling U.S. standards weak and outdated, the Sierra Club of Canada called on the government to adopt the more efficient standards of California.

Overall, the Harper government does not appear to believe the scientific case for climate change, says Bramley. Harper has been quoted in recent media reports doubting the need for immediate action.

“That Harper can cast doubt on the science behind climate change can only make one wonder,” he said.

In sharp contrast, British Prime Minister Tony Blair warned Friday that without serious and immediate action the world will reach “catastrophic tipping points” on climate change within 10 to 15 years.

Failure to act would affect economic growth and long-term energy supply and would cause conflict and insecurity, Blair wrote in a letter to member countries of the European Union prior to a meeting.

Back in Canada, Elizabeth May, leader of the increasingly popular Green Party, writes about her profound disappointment after months of hype by the Harper government that it would unveil tough new environmental laws:

“The Canadian movement to avert a global climate catastrophe just lost years – no decades – of work,” she said.