Friends of the Earth Canada has launched a suit in Federal Court against the Harpo government. The suit alleges the government has breached Canadian law by rejecting the country's Kyoto commitments.
From The Guardian:
"A target announced by the Canadian government last month, which would see emissions cut by 20% on 2006 levels by 2020, would still leave the country 39% over its Kyoto target for 2008-2012, the group said.
"It added that, of the countries signed up to the Kyoto agreement, only Australia was further behind on its targets.
"The case is being brought under Canadian legislation which incorporates the international agreement to cut emissions into domestic law and says ministers have to act if the country is found responsible for an increase in greenhouse gases.
"In October, the Canadian government was presented with legal opinion which indicated it had failed to show "demonstrable progress" on meeting its target, as required by 2005.
"Although this should have triggered action by the environment minister, Friends of the Earth said nothing had happened to suggest the country would meet its targets and it was applying for a judicial review, which would force the government to act."
One can only hope that Harper is like Chretien and Martin and disregard Kyoto. Like Chretien and Martin before him, responsible Prime Ministers do whats right for the country, not what's the flavour of the day politics. And, today when Mr McGuinty turned down California style CO2 emmissions for the auto industry, its plain to see he gets it as well. But I still dont understand why you get all worked up about 1/4 of 2% of worlds CO2 emmissions, if you shut down Ontario's auto industry and Alberta's oil sands...thats what it would amount to...0.0025%.
ReplyDeleteBill, I understand that you don't understand. You might consider reading some of the IPCC stuff to get a better grasp on the scale of the problem as it's been assessed over just the past few years. With a working knowledge of the latest findings you would probably understand the situation much better. By the way, there are no "oil sands" in Alberta. There are tar sands, coarse bitumen that is processed into artificial oil. It's tar, Bill.
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