OTTAWA – Ongoing inaction on the environment is Canada’s Achilles heel on the international stage, as other countries reassess the importance of tackling climate change, according to former prime minister Kim Campbell.
“Canada kind of dragged its heels on climate change as long as the (former president George W.) Bush administration wasn’t doing much,” she said in an interview on the Global News program The West Block with Tom Clark. “The Obama administration is moving in a different direction and in the last state of the union address the president really started tackling this.”
In last month’s speech, U.S. President Barack Obama pushed Congress to take action on climate change by passing a bipartisan market-based solution. He also promised executive actions aimed at reducing pollution, mitigating and preparing for the impacts of climate change, and speeding the transition to cleaner energy sources.
Campbell said the global opinion about the urgency of addressing climate change has changed -- and Canada needs to catch up.
“The government has not been very forthright in Canada in dealing with the problem of climate change, and the mentality is changing in the United States, particularly when you have disasters like Hurricane Sandy which bring home to people what extreme weather is and what they can expect with the rising of sea levels and the warming of the oceans,” said the former Progressive Conservative prime minister.
The United States has borne the brunt of several extreme weather events in recent history. Just last fall, the eastern seaboard was pounded by Hurricane Sandy, which left at least 285 people dead and a trail of destruction in its wake.
“It’s like gay marriage, it’s one of those issues that is moving very quickly and governments need to be out ahead of it,” Campbell said.
In Canada, federal action around climate change in anchored in the Conservative government’s plan to implement sector-by-sector emissions regulations. The goal, as agreed to in the Copenhagen Accord, is to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 17 per cent, relative to 2005 levels, by 2020. The United States committed to the same target.
It is yet to be seen whether other countries will consider Canada’s efforts good enough as they are continuously confronted with the effects of climate change.
The changing priorities south of the border should also influence Canada’s oilsands sales pitch to the U.S., according to Campbell.
Campbell said oilsands energy should be pitched as stop-gap solution for dirtier energy sources like coal until more sustainable technologies come online.
“You might not like tar sands. It’s not perfect, but it is cleaner than a lot of energy sources you use now and it can be a mid-range transformative possibility so you can get to even cleaner sources of energy,” she said, adding that the message needs to be heard on the main streets of U.S. towns as well as in Washington’s halls of power.
The federal government, along with Alberta Premier Alison Redford, has been pushing their U.S. counterparts to approve the controversial Keystone XL pipeline, which would carry oilsands bitumen from Alberta to the United States.
Proponents won a key battle last week as the U.S. State Department concluded the project would not contribute to global warming. Still, the report cautioned not to interpret the report as a recommendation to approve the project.
The politically-charged decision now lies in the hands of Obama, who will make a decision after assessing the pipeline’s impact on employment, energy security and the environment.
Original Article
Source: globalnews.ca
Author: Tom Clark
“Canada kind of dragged its heels on climate change as long as the (former president George W.) Bush administration wasn’t doing much,” she said in an interview on the Global News program The West Block with Tom Clark. “The Obama administration is moving in a different direction and in the last state of the union address the president really started tackling this.”
In last month’s speech, U.S. President Barack Obama pushed Congress to take action on climate change by passing a bipartisan market-based solution. He also promised executive actions aimed at reducing pollution, mitigating and preparing for the impacts of climate change, and speeding the transition to cleaner energy sources.
Campbell said the global opinion about the urgency of addressing climate change has changed -- and Canada needs to catch up.
“The government has not been very forthright in Canada in dealing with the problem of climate change, and the mentality is changing in the United States, particularly when you have disasters like Hurricane Sandy which bring home to people what extreme weather is and what they can expect with the rising of sea levels and the warming of the oceans,” said the former Progressive Conservative prime minister.
The United States has borne the brunt of several extreme weather events in recent history. Just last fall, the eastern seaboard was pounded by Hurricane Sandy, which left at least 285 people dead and a trail of destruction in its wake.
“It’s like gay marriage, it’s one of those issues that is moving very quickly and governments need to be out ahead of it,” Campbell said.
In Canada, federal action around climate change in anchored in the Conservative government’s plan to implement sector-by-sector emissions regulations. The goal, as agreed to in the Copenhagen Accord, is to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 17 per cent, relative to 2005 levels, by 2020. The United States committed to the same target.
It is yet to be seen whether other countries will consider Canada’s efforts good enough as they are continuously confronted with the effects of climate change.
The changing priorities south of the border should also influence Canada’s oilsands sales pitch to the U.S., according to Campbell.
Campbell said oilsands energy should be pitched as stop-gap solution for dirtier energy sources like coal until more sustainable technologies come online.
“You might not like tar sands. It’s not perfect, but it is cleaner than a lot of energy sources you use now and it can be a mid-range transformative possibility so you can get to even cleaner sources of energy,” she said, adding that the message needs to be heard on the main streets of U.S. towns as well as in Washington’s halls of power.
The federal government, along with Alberta Premier Alison Redford, has been pushing their U.S. counterparts to approve the controversial Keystone XL pipeline, which would carry oilsands bitumen from Alberta to the United States.
Proponents won a key battle last week as the U.S. State Department concluded the project would not contribute to global warming. Still, the report cautioned not to interpret the report as a recommendation to approve the project.
The politically-charged decision now lies in the hands of Obama, who will make a decision after assessing the pipeline’s impact on employment, energy security and the environment.
Original Article
Source: globalnews.ca
Author: Tom Clark
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