Excerptcize

Seeing this news clip* over the weekend got me to wondering about Canada’s current environmental policy.  I was getting ready to slag the governments inaction on this front over the past couple years but I figured on gathering some information first.  I remember that in 2006/07 this was at the forefront of discussion in this country but seemed to fall by the wayside without any resolution occurring on the way to go forward.  The Conservatives put forward a plan that was widely panned as emissions targets were pegged to growth in industry; the end result would be that while relative levels of carbon emissions would go down, it was possible that the overall levels could increase.  Harper then took another kick at the can and released a proposal to reach somewhat more ambitious targets and scrapped the mechanism that would have allowed the scenario I just mentioned.  Since then the issue seems to have fallen by the wayside, both in any developments and in the nations consciousness.

In the linked to video Harper is speaking to reporters about the need for unified action on this issue.  He is right about this.  Canada is a very small emitter relative to others and even combined plans from the developed world (US, Canada, Eurozone) would not be sufficient.  It is imperative that BRIC nations are included in efforts to reduce emissions as well.  For whatever reason though I had a very hard time taking what Harper was saying in good faith.  To my ear, it sounded more like a delaying tactic than a true, practical assertion; necessary players aren’t moving forward (China, India) so there’s no point in us doing so until they are on board.

This suspicion is what prompted me to ask what our environmental policies currently are.  So I fired up my magic connected tubes and headed over to Environment Canada’s webpage on climate change.  It turns out things were much as I remembered them.  Some goals have been set to reduce emissions, 20% by 2020 and 60-70% by 2050.  Reduced 20% from what though? 2006 levels.  This was a sticking point with environmentalists (scientists too?) for not being ambitious enough.  I don’t have any level of expertise to judge this but other targets I’ve seen use 1996 as the baseline year to judge reductions against.  Another goal listed is to have 90% of Canada’s power production come from non carbon emitting sources by 2020.  I believe that it is important that we have goals set to work towards.  The feasibility/merits of those goals are for others to judge.  I am happy that we at least have targets to work towards.  More important though are the underlying policies; what mechanism are we going to use to meet this goals? Cap and Trade or a Carbon Tax? Is there some other tool that I haven’t heard of?  This section would seem to indicate that those policies have not been set

The Government of Canada is taking an aggressive approach to achieve real environmental and economic benefits for Canadians.

Our plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is on track.  We are currently fine-tuning our approach to tackling climate change, and will introduce a full suite of domestic policies addressing all major sources of emissions prior to the UN meetings in Copenhagen this December. The content and timing of the regulations implementing these policies will be driven by Canada’s national interests, while also accounting for the actions of our trading partners, including the U.S.

With a climate change bill having passed the US House of Representatives already and the Senate set to take this issue up soon, ideally our own government will be making some progress on the policy decisions soon in order to stay on the same page as the Americans.  While Environment Canada’s webpage does list funding that has been set aside for research and development, of paramount importance is having a mechanism to realize our goals, no matter how ambitious they are.  It would be great if my suspicion of our government is unfounded and merely a result of my dislike of Harper’s weaselly grin.

*Linux users are not imaging things, video streaming does not work from the CBC on a Linux box.  Voice your disapproval with this here.

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