By some lights it was a breakthrough to have China and India and Brazil talking about targets — even though they have only agreed to start getting there.  It is an enormous relief to have a second commitment period under Kyoto, starting immediately at the end of the first. But Canada is, of course, refusing to take part, plus Japan and Russia.  The USA remains perpetually hobbled by domestic politics and somehow year after year and COP after COP, the US ducks its responsibilities.

Canada’s role, Fossil of the Year for the 5th consecutive year is no surprise. Canada’s interventions and actions have the effect of weakening texts and hardening positions. As I head home I am so worried about the reports that the Prime Minister wants to legally withdraw from the Kyoto Protocol. For all the damage we have done thus far, such an action would hurt the new agreements from Durban before the ink is dry.  We need to stay on top of this threat, reportedly to be executed on December 23.

The frustrating, maddening, even terrifying aspect of climate talks is that GHG levels keep rising while multilateral negotiations try to determine the time table by which they will be reduced. – eventually. It reminds me of the unacceptable negotiations with forest companies. We used to call it “talk and log.” The climate equivalent, climate negotiators talk while profligate use of fossil fuels ramps up year on year.

We need the equivalent of a cease fire.  No new GHG added, no new tar sands projects approved.  We cannot afford to keep adding an ever increasing volume of warming gases into the atmosphere, while negotiating when we plan to begin to slow it down.

And that is why we have to find a way to pick up the pace. We are risking putting the atmosphere on an irreversible trajectory to runaway global warming. We need to stop the rise in GHG — everywhere on Earth by 2015.  On current levels of political will, we are not yet close to the actions we need. Still, thank goodness Durban gave us something in the right direction. Now we need to get back to public mobilizations to improve the agreements and really reduce GHG.

The post Last thoughts on the Durban package appeared first on Elizabeth May.

Canadians strongly support signing on to a new international climate agreement, according to a poll by Environics Research conducted for The Globe and Mail in November of this year (“Support for climate action still strong in Canada, poll finds” November 30, 2011). But the Conservative government plans to pull out of the only agreement on the table, the Kyoto Accord, after years of reneging on Canada’s commitments and undermining the negotiating process.

Scientists around the world are calling with increased urgency for an international agreement to curb carbon emissions and to begin meaningful reductions by 2015. In a recent article in The Guardian, Fatih Birol, chief economist at the International Energy Association, said “If we don’t change direction now on how we use energy . . . the door will be closed forever” (“World headed for irreversible climate change in five years, IEA warns” The Guardian November 9, 2011).

Elizabeth May, MP for Saanich—Gulf Islands and Leader of the Green Party of Canada, met her provincial and territorial counterparts by teleconference as she began her trip to Durban to attend COP17 – where Canada will again be a frontrunner for Fossil of the Year award. “We ran out of time for politics of deny and delay over a decade ago. The scientific warnings are clear — failure to move decisively now will leave our own children in an unliveable world. What kind of parents are we?” says May. “Canada used to be seen as a nation of peacekeepers and a model of solidarity in the world, especially toward Africa,” said Claude Sabourin, Leader of the Parti Vert de Québec. “Now Canada is seen as a militarily-oriented country that chooses its own short-term financial gain over the welfare of others. The Harper government’s wilful obstruction of international climate negotiations will fix Canada’s reputation — for the worse — in the minds of the global community.”

The post Green Parties in Canada condemn government’s sabotage of international climate agreement appeared first on Elizabeth May.