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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

Canada won't bend to G8 on climate

Refusal to adjust policy draws fire for perceived lack of leadership

By: Peter O'Neil

Posted: 07/10/2009 1:00 AM | Comments: 0 (including replies)

George Clooney meets residents while touring quake damage on sidelines of G8 summit, in St. Eusanio, Italy, Thursday. (LUCA BRUNO / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS)

L'AQUILA, Italy -- The Canadian government refused Thursday to adjust its battle plan against global warming even though its objectives fall short of the new commitment from the G8 group of industrialized countries to slash greenhouse gas emissions by mid-century.

That made Canada one of the targets for criticism after U.S. President Barack Obama failed Thursday to obtain clear commitments from emerging industrial powerhouses like China and India to commit to specific targets for greenhouse gas emission reductions.

Critics, from United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to environmental lobby groups, said developed countries didn't show adequate leadership at the G8 summit here despite a widespread recognition that they bear more responsibility than poorer countries for fighting climate change.

But Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his environment minister, Jim Prentice, said Canada is doing all it can in advance of the UN-sponsored negotiations in Copenhagen in December aimed at a new climate treaty to replace the Kyoto Protocol, the 1997 treaty that will expire in 2012.

Canada joined its partners in the G8 group of industrialized countries -- the U.S., Russia, Japan, Great Britain, France, Germany and Italy -- in supporting an overall 80 per cent cut in emissions by mid-century.

But Prentice said the Canadian government won't budge from its vow to reduce emissions by 60 to 70 per cent by 2050.

"This is a realistic target (given) the climate we have, the industrial base we have, our population growth," Prentice told reporters.

Harper said Canada's reduction plan is in line with the Obama administration's.

"We have an integrated economy," he said. "If we had regulations that are not similar to the United States, we will simply have a loss of business and production to the United States."

Russia, like Canada described recently as one of the G8's "bad boys" on climate change by an environmental group, also said it wouldn't abide by the G8 pledge.

A coalition of Canadian environmental groups said the Harper government's targets fall far short of its global responsibility as one of the world's wealthiest nations.

"Canada's current 2020 target, which is equivalent to just three per cent below 1990 levels, falls far short of the emission cuts needed to avoid dangerous climate change," Climate Action Network Canada said in a statement.

Obama led a meeting of 16 major greenhouse gas-emitting countries plus representatives of the European Union on Thursday in a bid to get a broader commitment in support of overall global reductions of 50 per cent by 2050.

The group, the Major Economies Forum, agreed with the G8 that an average global temperature increase two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial-age levels would be catastrophic. The planet is now 0.8 degrees above pre-industrial levels.

However, they failed to accept specific targets due to foot-dragging from India and China, countries that have complained that their richer counterparts haven't set sufficiently aggressive medium-term targets for 2020.

-- Canwest News Service

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition July 10, 2009 A15

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