350 or bust

Today was the “international day of climate action” organized by the 350.org coalition. It was a united signal to world leaders that urgent action is needed in the Copenhagen summit starting Dec 7. My particular group brought homemade noise-makers to Place des Spectacles (in Montreal) and made 350 seconds of cacophony aimed straight at Stephen Harper.

I’m very pleased to learn about 350.org. It is the most inclusive, focused, and well-organized anti-climate-change group thus far. National initiatives haven’t worked so far, and I hope this kind of internationalist approach will be more effective.

Alas, my government is actively sabotaging efforts to reach a workable, effective agreement to limit climate change. First, by taking no action to satisfy our Kyoto protocol obligations—Canada is already 34% above our 2012 CO2-emission targets. Second, by obstructing efforts to expand and improve Kyoto—our negotiators are calling for an entirely new framework, which would take several years to negotiate.

We should not only blame the Conservative Party or their voters for this shortsightedness. No one should be surprised that a party built on Alberta’s petrodollars is opposed to restrictions on fossil fuels; and there will always be fearful and ignorant voters who support an impossible return to “the good old days” (although I am disturbed that they are so numerous at this critical junction). No, the other half of the Canadian establishment is equally responsible. The Liberals were in power for the first decade of our Kyoto obligations, and they took no significant action. Even now, after yet another year of shrinking glaciers, spreading pests and diseases, droughts, wildfires, freak weather, and rising sea levels, Liberal inaction is blocking the way forward. After all, the Conservatives are a minority in Parliament, and by uniting with the environment-friendly NDP and BQ, the Liberals could implement controls on emissions. A case in point is Bill C-311, the Climate Change Accountability Act, an NDP private member’s bill currently in its third reading in the House of Commons. It would set emission targets for 2020 and 2050 (25% and 80% below 1990 levels) and give regulators the power to punish polluters. This version of the Act was introduced in February, and there has been a push to pass it before the Copenhagen summit to give Canadian negotiators a strong negotiating position. However, last week the Liberals delayed the reading by another 30 days, which likely means it won’t be passed in time for Copenhagen. Ignatieff is just as bad as Harper (of which more later).

Fingers crossed for Copenhagen…