Missing the Copenhagen Target

On February 15, with the Conservatives’ typical, quiet Friday afternoon, splash-less launch, the 2012 Progress Report to the Federal Sustainable Development Strategy was tabled in the House of Commons. The following week was a break in the Parliamentary schedule, and, so far, the report has been ignored in the national media. If you have had ...

What will 2013 hold for Canada?

I admit that I have failed in my number one goal for 2012—either convincing Stephen Harper to change his mind about Kyoto or to force him out of office in time to stop the withdrawal from Kyoto. On December 15, 2012, Harper’s letter of intent for legal withdrawal from the Kyoto Protocol took effect. It ...

“Day of Shame”: Canada Officially Out of Kyoto

On December 15th, Canada’s withdrawal from the Kyoto Protocol will take legal effect. Canada will be the only nation out of more than 180 to legally exit the protocol. “It is the first treaty in the history of Canada that we have ever ratified and then repudiated and quit. This decision threatens Canada’s standing in ...

Statement – Climate Change

Elizabeth May: Mr. Speaker, we are on a collision course to global disaster with a dangerous disconnect between the political timetable and what science is warning us is a rapidly closing window to avoid runaway global warming. Scientists warn us that everything is speeding up from what they anticipated. Arctic ice is melting faster, permafrost ...

Kent’s Claim that Canada’s Emissions are “Historically Low” is Bogus

In a statement released today from Doha, Environment Minister Peter Kent claims that Canada’s emissions are historically low. He bases his statement on per capita greenhouse gas (GHG). “The Minister hopes to distract us from 2011 total emissions which have gone up. According to international reporting published in the prestigious journal Nature Climate Change, Canada’s ...

May calls on Prime Minister to change course at UN climate talks

Green Party leader Elizabeth May, MP Saanich-Gulf Islands, held a press conference today to explain the importance of the UN Climate Conference (COP18) unfolding in Doha, Qatar, until December 7 and call on the Canadian delegation to participate in good faith. “At this conference, even more than the previous 17, the carbon-reduction negotiations will have ...

Get the right deal, not a rushed deal

Permit me to begin this article by wishing we had one thousandths the level of media coverage of CETA into the Canada-China Investment Treaty.  By the time you read this, the likelihood is that Canada will be bound for a minimum of 31 years to a treaty that gives the Peoples Republic of China the ...

Climate change in the spin cycle

It has been a long time since I have heard so much debate in the House about carbon taxes and climate plans. Unfortunately, none of it is focused on the climate crisis. It is the ultimate irony – I hear the words, but the issue is ignored. We should be talking about the science. We ...

Canada still has no plan to address climate change

There is no shortage of compelling issues to discuss in a Hill Times Environmental Policy briefing.  Even listing, without describing, the catalogue of assaults on environmental law and policy by the prime minister in the last 12 months is enough to occupy the whole issue. Canada undermined global climate negotiations in Durban in December, negotiated ...

Speak Out during World Environment Week

World Environment Week spans June 4th to June 8th, with June 5th being Environment Day. “This is a critical time in Canada.  Our environment is at serious risk of irreparable harm due to the gutting of environmental legislation contained in Bill C-38, which is being forced through Parliament.  If there were ever a time for ...