IS CANADA'S PRIME MINISTER STEPHEN HARPER, DELIBERATELY BLOCKING CLIMATE CHANGE NEGOTIATIONS?
Joseph Raglione
October 24, 2009
Gentle readers within this American Chronicle, it is becoming apparently clear that the Prime Minister of Canada, Stephen Harper, is an embarrassment to the majority of Canadians who are working hard to mitigate climate change. It is lucky for Canada that Harper is leading a minority government because if he had a majority, our Canadian social programs like Medicare and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, would go down the tubes faster than the dirty Bitumen Tar Sands Oil Alberta is currently pumping into the United States, with Harper's blessing! In Canada, Harper is acting similarly to the way G.W.Bush behaved when he controlled the U.S. government. Unfortunately, we don't have a Barack Obama to change our situation and this bodes badly for world climate negotiations. The following message is from the Harper Index...>
Obstructionism from Canada blocks global climate change progress
Australian scientist, best-selling author Tim Flannery urges Canada to be part of the solution.
Staff, with files from Lori Steuart and video by Kevin Caners and Bodeene Amyot
OTTAWA, October 15, 2009, a special report from HarperIndex.ca, with YouTube video: Australian scientist and author Tim Flannery came to Ottawa yesterday to deliver a blunt message that Canada is developing an international reputation as a bad actor in world climate change negotiations. Its "obstructionist position" must change if a deadlock between the developing and developed world is to be broken at the UN Climate Summit in December, says Flannery.
"We desperately need Canada to play a much more positive role in the coming months," he told a Parliament Hill news conference. "Canada is an important country with important obligations."
Dr. Flannery, chair of the Copenhagen Climate Council, a global collaboration between business and science, achieved international fame for his book The Weather Makers. He is s now touring to promote a new book Now or Never in advance of the crucial UN summit on climate change in Copenhagen. Many say this summit is the last chance for humanity to forge a strong and fair climate change agreement to build on the Kyoto Protocol.
Observers see Canada, under Stephen Harper's leadership, as being "singularly unhelpful".
"Canada is falling behind in achieving the targets scientists tell us we need to avoid runaway climate change," he said. "Canada is now one of the top 10 global warming polluters in the world."
View the YouTube video of Tim Flannery's answers to questions from reporters at his Ottawa news conference sponsored by the David Suzuki Foundation:
Flannery said observers see Canada, under Stephen Harper's leadership, as being "singularly unhelpful, particularly in its relationship with the Kyoto Treaty..." and contrasts Canada's participation in international discussion with the "enthusiasm" of British Prime Minister Gordon Brown. Flannery laments, for instance, the government's failure to enact Bill C311, the Climate Change Accountability Act, private member's legislation introduced by the NDP and supported by all three opposition parties but blocked in 2008 by the Conservatives.
"The people that I speak to are concerned about the Canadian position," he said. "If Canada did play a more constructive role, it could be important, it could be important in brokering an outcome."
When asked about Stephen Harper's well-known view that "Kyoto is essentially a socialist scheme to suck money out of wealth-producing nations" Flannery was dismissive. "The reason that rich countries are expected to pay for adaptation in the developing world is simply they are the only ones who are capable of doing that, and there is a strong moral argument for them to do so," he replied. "After all, rich countries have reaped all of the benefits of the industrial revolution, which has put the pollution into the atmosphere. The people in the least developed countries of the world will only suffer the consequences of that pollution, so there's not just a strong moral case, there's a real-world case that we're the only countries that are capable to do so, and it is one of the absolutely fundamental stepping-stones that's required to bring us into a more sustainable world, to deal with this climate issue."
He says the argument, used by Harper and his few remaining allies, that developing nations like India and China must match Canadian emissions limits "ran out of legs many years ago, when people realized it's just a circular argument. Everyone can point to someone bigger than them and say 'There's no point us doing anything unless they do.'" What's needed, he says, is good faith to "broker a fair deal where everyone has different but common responsibilities in this area, and China is certainly engaging in that. So you can't ask everyone to carry the same identical program forward, we need to engage on a bit more sophisticated level than that."
View more of Tim Flannery's answers to questions from reporters at his Ottawa news conference sponsored by the David Suzuki Foundation:
Flannery holds out hope that Bill C311 can ultimately pass. "Doing so it will be a great flag for Canada to carry to Copenhagen, and to say that the people of Canada actually do care about this issue, 'we have set our targets, and we are willing to start negotiating.' Now I don't know that may be simply impossible under the current government, but it would be good even to see the proposal of that legislation in Copenhagen, quite frankly to let people know that Canada cares, if it's passed by then.
"For the sake of all the world's people, economy, and environment, we need an effective global climate treaty now," he said.
View the YouTube video of Tim Flannery's opening statement at his Ottawa news conference, sponsored by the David Suzuki Foundation (introduction by Dale Marshall):
Posted: October 15, 2009
Harper Index (HarperIndex.ca) is a project of the Golden Lake Institute and the online publication StraightGoods.ca
Newswire/RSS
Golden Lake Institute/HarperIndex.ca, 2007-09
HarperIndex.ca owns copyright on all staff-written articles.
We encourage others to freely distribute material from this website but, without explicit permission,
Web publishers may only useshort excerpts that also include credit to us and a reference to our site for the full article.
This site is managed by the Golden Lake Institute and Straight Goods News
For comments or suggestions, please contact the HarperIndex.ca Editor
For technical issues, please contact the HarperIndex.ca Webmaster
Obstructionism from Canada blocks global climate change progress
Australian scientist, best-selling author Tim Flannery urges Canada to be part of the solution.
Staff, with files from Lori Steuart and video by Kevin Caners and Bodeene Amyot
OTTAWA, October 15, 2009, a special report from HarperIndex.ca, with YouTube video: Australian scientist and author Tim Flannery came to Ottawa yesterday to deliver a blunt message that Canada is developing an international reputation as a bad actor in world climate change negotiations. Its "obstructionist position" must change if a deadlock between the developing and developed world is to be broken at the UN Climate Summit in December, says Flannery.
"We desperately need Canada to play a much more positive role in the coming months," he told a Parliament Hill news conference. "Canada is an important country with important obligations."
Dr. Flannery, chair of the Copenhagen Climate Council, a global collaboration between business and science, achieved international fame for his book The Weather Makers. He is s now touring to promote a new book Now or Never in advance of the crucial UN summit on climate change in Copenhagen. Many say this summit is the last chance for humanity to forge a strong and fair climate change agreement to build on the Kyoto Protocol.
Observers see Canada, under Stephen Harper's leadership, as being "singularly unhelpful".
"Canada is falling behind in achieving the targets scientists tell us we need to avoid runaway climate change," he said. "Canada is now one of the top 10 global warming polluters in the world."
View the YouTube video of Tim Flannery's answers to questions from reporters at his Ottawa news conference sponsored by the David Suzuki Foundation:
Flannery said observers see Canada, under Stephen Harper's leadership, as being "singularly unhelpful, particularly in its relationship with the Kyoto Treaty..." and contrasts Canada's participation in international discussion with the "enthusiasm" of British Prime Minister Gordon Brown. Flannery laments, for instance, the government's failure to enact Bill C311, the Climate Change Accountability Act, private member's legislation introduced by the NDP and supported by all three opposition parties but blocked in 2008 by the Conservatives.
"The people that I speak to are concerned about the Canadian position," he said. "If Canada did play a more constructive role, it could be important, it could be important in brokering an outcome."
When asked about Stephen Harper's well-known view that "Kyoto is essentially a socialist scheme to suck money out of wealth-producing nations" Flannery was dismissive. "The reason that rich countries are expected to pay for adaptation in the developing world is simply they are the only ones who are capable of doing that, and there is a strong moral argument for them to do so," he replied. "After all, rich countries have reaped all of the benefits of the industrial revolution, which has put the pollution into the atmosphere. The people in the least developed countries of the world will only suffer the consequences of that pollution, so there's not just a strong moral case, there's a real-world case that we're the only countries that are capable to do so, and it is one of the absolutely fundamental stepping-stones that's required to bring us into a more sustainable world, to deal with this climate issue."
He says the argument, used by Harper and his few remaining allies, that developing nations like India and China must match Canadian emissions limits "ran out of legs many years ago, when people realized it's just a circular argument. Everyone can point to someone bigger than them and say 'There's no point us doing anything unless they do.'" What's needed, he says, is good faith to "broker a fair deal where everyone has different but common responsibilities in this area, and China is certainly engaging in that. So you can't ask everyone to carry the same identical program forward, we need to engage on a bit more sophisticated level than that."
View more of Tim Flannery's answers to questions from reporters at his Ottawa news conference sponsored by the David Suzuki Foundation:
Flannery holds out hope that Bill C311 can ultimately pass. "Doing so it will be a great flag for Canada to carry to Copenhagen, and to say that the people of Canada actually do care about this issue, 'we have set our targets, and we are willing to start negotiating.' Now I don't know that may be simply impossible under the current government, but it would be good even to see the proposal of that legislation in Copenhagen, quite frankly to let people know that Canada cares, if it's passed by then.
"For the sake of all the world's people, economy, and environment, we need an effective global climate treaty now," he said.
View the YouTube video of Tim Flannery's opening statement at his Ottawa news conference, sponsored by the David Suzuki Foundation (introduction by Dale Marshall):
Posted: October 15, 2009
Harper Index (HarperIndex.ca) is a project of the Golden Lake Institute and the online publication StraightGoods.ca
Newswire/RSS
Golden Lake Institute/HarperIndex.ca, 2007-09
HarperIndex.ca owns copyright on all staff-written articles.
We encourage others to freely distribute material from this website but, without explicit permission,
Web publishers may only useshort excerpts that also include credit to us and a reference to our site for the full article.
This site is managed by the Golden Lake Institute and Straight Goods News
For comments or suggestions, please contact the HarperIndex.ca Editor
For technical issues, please contact the HarperIndex.ca Webmaster
Print
Email
