ENVIRONMENT: Canada Still Dithers on Global Warming Position

By Paul Weinberg Reprint | | Print |

Paul Paul Weinberg

TORONTO, Nov 30 1997 (IPS) - Canada is in the awkward position of being the only top industrial nation in the world not to have stated a position on reducing the sources of global warming, prior to the start Monday of the international conference on Climate change in Kyoto.

Opposition parties demanded in parliament that Canada’s Liberal government reveal its plan for the conference, but all to no avail. “It’s bit of a joke: it’s off again; on again; off again,” quipped Chuck Strahl, the Reform Party’s environmental spopkesman.

The government at least is aware of the problem. At a University of Toronto symposium last week federal environment minister Christine Stewart and her department scientists predicted dire consequences from a failure to control greenhouse gas emissions.

Their study, Canada Country Study: Climate Impacts and Adaptation, reports that a dramatic warming trend in this resources-rich country will lead among other things to more allergy and cardio-respiratory-related, potentially deadly, illnesses among the young, elderly, frail and chronically ill, especially in the highly populated urban areas of southern Ontario and Quebec.

The study also warns of the disappearance of polar bears, musk ox and caribou in northern Canada and a negative impact on the fisheries, vegetation and crops. But Stewart stated in an earlier letter to provincial governments – where there is opposition to a climate change treaty focused on strong compliance measures – that “Canada is opposed to financial penalties or trade sanctions.”

Supporters of a more voluntary approach to climate strategies include the country’s oil, coal and gas producers, blamed for some of the greenhouse emissions. They have purchased full page ads in the daily newspapers questioning the science behind global warming. Also, the influential Business Council on National Issues warned of the tremendous economic damage if a carbon tax and other measures to curtail the burning of fossil fuels were implemented in a cold country like Canada.

However 61 per cent of Canadians stated that governments should act now to reduce human impact on the world’s climate, even if there are major costs, according to the Toronto based Environics International Ltd polling firm. At the same time, Metro Toronto tops 150 cities around the world, edging out previous winner Berlin, as the leader in combating global warming at the local level, according to the UN-affilitated International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives.

Canada’s largest urban centre reported achieving cumulative reductions of 7.8-million tonnes of carbon dioxide during 1990- 1996. The older city portion of Toronto witnessed a six per cent decline in emissions since 1990, in contrast to Canada’s emissions, which have increased 10 per cent.

Phil Jessup, director of the ICLEI’s cities for climate protection program suggests that since more than half of the world’s population live in urban areas, they are vital to any emissions-reduction strategy. “Cities control one of the most important levers for energy use, which is land-use management” – particularly around issues like zoning, suburban sprawl and automobile use, he says.

Canada is not the only country that has failed to meet its commitments at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro to reduce greenhouse emissions to 1990 levels by 2000. But the Liberals who had taken a stronger position than the then ruling Conservatives on alleviating climate change while in opposition had allowed the issue to slide after their election to power in 1993.

It was the embarrassment of being put in the spot by other world leaders and repeated questions in the House of Commons by the right-wing Reform party with its strong ties to the oil and gas industry in Alberta, that caused Prime Minister Jean Chretien to take a stand. He indicated that Canada would not lag behind the U.S. which aims to stabilize greenhouse emissions at 1990 levels between 2008 and 2010.

But after meeting with the provincial governments it appears that Ottawa has more modest goals, which include the levelling of emissions between 2007 and 2010. Ten years after that there would be further reduction targets, somewhere between five to 12 percent more than the 1990 levels. The latter has been the subject of continuous debate within the federal Liberal cabinet.

Also, Chretien personally has assured Alberta Premier Ralph Klein that the federal government would not introduce any policies considered harmful to his provinces petroleum industry.

Much of this consultation with the provinces stems from the Liberals desire to keep autonomy seeking Quebec in the federation and avoid the past days of an intrusive federal government. While nine out of ten provinces have endorsed the American position for Kyoto, Canada’s only French speaking province, which is largely reliant on hydro electric power, is sticking with the more ambitious Rio summit targets.

Before Chretien staked out any position, says Robert Hornung of the Ottawa based Pembina Institute, “the only province engaged on the issue was Alberta, while Quebec sees tremendous opportunities in hydro electric power (as an cleaner energy source.)”

A lawyer for the Vancouver based West Coast Environmental Law Association, Chris Rolfe says that recent courts decisions demonstrate that the Canadian government “has the jurisdiction to act on its own,” in any environmental emergencies.

ENVIRONMENT: Canada Still Dithers on Global Warming Position

By Paul Weinberg Reprint | | Print |

Paul Paul Weinberg

TORONTO, Nov 30 1997 (IPS) - Canada is in the awkward position of being the only top industrial nation in the world not to have stated a position on reducing the sources of global warming, prior to the start Monday of the international conference on Climate change in Kyoto.
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