Harper "embarrasses" Canada, say climate change activists

Shortly after word broke of the Lake Victoria Climate Change Action Plan agreed to here at the Commonwealth Summit, Climate For Change — which has a long history of opposing the Conservative government’s environment plans — issued the following statement:

OTTAWA — Prime Minister Stephen helped move 53 Commonwealth nations backwards prior to vital upcoming Kyoto negotiations in Bali. 51 of the 53 countries attending the Commonwealth Conference, led by the United Kingdom, had intended the final Communiqué of the Kampala meeting to give momentum to the UN negotiations in Bali by calling for developed countries to accept binding targets after 2012. Unfortunately, because of Prime Minster Harper’s insistence, the Communiqué was significantly weakened and now only calls only for “long-term aspirational” targets.
 
“Harper is deliberately trying to sabotage the upcoming Kyoto meetings in Bali by killing any potential momentum that may have come out of this meeting,” said John Bennett, executive director, ClimateforChange.ca. “George Bush and the oil industry will be happy today.”
 
The Harper and Bush governments have consistently stated that they would only consider a global agreement on binding targets for greenhouse gases if it “included major polluters”, like China and India. According to sources, this theme was brought up again by Harper during closed-door deliberations at the Commonwealth Summit.
 
“It is unreasonable to expect a developing country, like India, to reduce it’s emissions at the same rate as a Canadian when the average Canadian emits 23 tonnes of greenhouse gases — 10 times more than the average Indian,” said Mr. Bennett. “It is unfair an alienates the very countries we are trying to encourage.”
 
Canada, as it did in the original Montreal Protocol negotiations, needs to acknowledge that a countries' level and nature of commitment must be differentiated according to their per capita emissions and wealth. This “differentiated responsibility” approach is indeed seen, 20 years later, as a major reason for the success of the Montreal Protocol.
 
But the Prime Minister isn’t interested in a successful Kyoto Protocol. The Prime Minister knows his logic is flawed but this is not about logic. It is a insincere public relations ploy written by the white house to protect U.S. and oil industry interests (including those operating in the Tar Sands).

Prime Minister Harper has once again embarrassed Canada on the world stage.