African nations are demanding that the West show that it's serious about fighting climate change. At negotiations underway in Spain, the African representatives want a show of good faith from the developed countries at the climate change summit in Copenhagen next month.
What they want is a binding committment to a 40% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 from 1990 levels.
Harper's target, posted on an EnviroCan website is a 20% cut from 2006 levels by 2020. That is a small fraction of what the African states will recognize as "good faith."
I think the African nations have a point. Just how selfish can we be? The Pembina report concludes that Canada can meet the 2 degree emissions target in 2020 and still have a growing economy, an improving quality of life, and steady job creation. Bill C-311 should not have been delayed by the Liberals.
ReplyDeleteWe can't begin to make it if we use a 2006 threshhold as the Tories propose.
ReplyDeleteOverall I doubt we (the world) are going to reach any meaningful pact. Nobody is much beyond the "we promise" stage and experience has shown that nothing short of fixed, mandatory and enforceable reductions can possibly work.
Oh well.
I am just amazed that the Harper government doesn't have the ability to sit down and devise a plan that will deal with the decrease of pollution without their first thought being about the economy. Taking the environment to heart surely will produce jobs....won't it? A. Morris
ReplyDeleteYes AM or should I say "Jingles." There are many employment and business opportunities in going green but they don't readily conform to the Tories support base. Harper is beholden to Alberta. There is no way he can risk losing that base and that means nothing can stand in the way of the Tar Sands.
ReplyDeleteHe'll go on with confusing babble about "intensity based" targets and CCS or carbon sequestration but those are simply smokescreens. Even if CCS could be proven viable (both technologically and economically) it would take decades to implement - time that we simply no longer have.
But the reality of CCS pales compared to its perception value to the Tories. Just say that the cure is around the corner and opponents are disarmed. The devil Mr. Harper knows is in the details and it's remarkably easy to mask those from the general public.
It's amazing the types of fraud for which we'll throw a miscreant into jail and the larger, more venal and potentially lethal varieties upon which we elect scoundrels to power.
Hello MOS: Can you tell me where I can find the piece you wrote for Oxfam? Cheers
ReplyDeleteHi. Are you referring to something I wrote about Oxfam? Even then I can't recall anything specifically. I have only the vaguest recollection of that.
ReplyDeleteSorry.
There is quite a bit on oxam on this page of your blog.
ReplyDeletehttp://the-mound-of-sound.blogspot.com/search?q=Oxfam
I thought I will help.
Anon thanks for your help but I wasn't able to find it. Cheers
ReplyDeleteJingles, Click on Edit on the top of the page, on the drop down click on "find on this page" on the page "http://the-mound-of-sound.blogspot.com/search?q=Oxfam"
ReplyDeleteand you will see Oxam in the text. It is not in the heading of the posts as such.