Saturday, April 28, 2007
Canada's new environmental plans
As some of you know, the conservatives have put forward their definitive plan to addressing the environment, greenhouse gases and climate change. In other words this if their plan for meeting our Kyoto obligations.
John Baird made his announcements with great fanfare, boasting that this is "more than any government in history has gone for climate change". It seems a number of people are taking issue with the government's plans.
- a number of the key indicators the government is aiming to reduce are tied to specific toxins that have already been consistently falling for the past number of years due to the phasing out of specific chemicals, CFCs, etc.
- unlike Kyoto which pegs the benchmark for reduction at 6% below 1990 emission levels, the Conservatives are claiming all their % reduction targets against CURRENT emissions, a benchmark virtually unused by any other international governments/organizations. (this reminds me of the conservative claims of eliminating "net debt" by 20xx, a practically made up and seldom recognized measure of debt)
Given the amount that emissions have risen since 1990, the Conservative targets still leave us well above 1990 levels, AND rather than meeting these targets in 2012 as set out by Kyoto, the plans targets are for 2015 and 2020.
- Corporations do not have to actually reduce their overall emissions. They only have to reduce emissions per unit of production( i.e. if I made 50 widgets today and emit 5 tonnes, if I'm making 100 widgets in 2015 I only need to emit less than 8 tonnes).
- Furthermore, corporations don't even really need to reduce emissions at all. Instead of reductions, they can simply pay into a "technology fund" set up by the government.
All in all, I think things were best summed up by David Suzuki who confronted John Baird at a convention yesterday. Suzuki called the plan an "embarassment" and "more of a sham than a strategy".
However, I think Al Gore really said things best in his criticisms today.. He described the plan as "shocking" and "a complete and total fraud. It is designed to mislead the Canadian people."
Ah politicians, how I love thee so.
John Baird made his announcements with great fanfare, boasting that this is "more than any government in history has gone for climate change". It seems a number of people are taking issue with the government's plans.
- a number of the key indicators the government is aiming to reduce are tied to specific toxins that have already been consistently falling for the past number of years due to the phasing out of specific chemicals, CFCs, etc.
- unlike Kyoto which pegs the benchmark for reduction at 6% below 1990 emission levels, the Conservatives are claiming all their % reduction targets against CURRENT emissions, a benchmark virtually unused by any other international governments/organizations. (this reminds me of the conservative claims of eliminating "net debt" by 20xx, a practically made up and seldom recognized measure of debt)
Given the amount that emissions have risen since 1990, the Conservative targets still leave us well above 1990 levels, AND rather than meeting these targets in 2012 as set out by Kyoto, the plans targets are for 2015 and 2020.
- Corporations do not have to actually reduce their overall emissions. They only have to reduce emissions per unit of production( i.e. if I made 50 widgets today and emit 5 tonnes, if I'm making 100 widgets in 2015 I only need to emit less than 8 tonnes).
- Furthermore, corporations don't even really need to reduce emissions at all. Instead of reductions, they can simply pay into a "technology fund" set up by the government.
All in all, I think things were best summed up by David Suzuki who confronted John Baird at a convention yesterday. Suzuki called the plan an "embarassment" and "more of a sham than a strategy".
However, I think Al Gore really said things best in his criticisms today.. He described the plan as "shocking" and "a complete and total fraud. It is designed to mislead the Canadian people."
Ah politicians, how I love thee so.
# posted by Greg @ 4:32 PM 
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Just as a quick follow up, I got real chuckles out of the big announcement this week that the Conservatives are now planning to ban incadescent light bulbs by 2012.
The real funny thing about this is that the conservatives just recently voted AGAINST this exact ban.
"Meantime, Natural Resources Minister Gary Lunn downplayed opposition criticism that Conservatives had voted against implementing a ban on the sale of inefficient light bulbs, less than a month ago at a special legislative committee studying the government’s clean air and climate change legislation."
The real funny thing about this is that the conservatives just recently voted AGAINST this exact ban.
"Meantime, Natural Resources Minister Gary Lunn downplayed opposition criticism that Conservatives had voted against implementing a ban on the sale of inefficient light bulbs, less than a month ago at a special legislative committee studying the government’s clean air and climate change legislation."
wow, that was a really informative post. Thanks greg. You made Al Gore sound much more interesting than the Toronto Star did.
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