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Canada climate hypocrite, UN envoy suggests
GEOFFREY YORK
Globe and Mail Update
December 10, 2007 at 10:50 AM EST
NUSA DUA, Indonesia — Canada is under mounting attack at the Bali climate-change conference, putting it on the defensive as the conference begins its final week of negotiations.
Yvo de Boer, head of the United Nations climate-change agency, said Canada seems to be hypocritical in what it demands from other countries.
"I personally find it interesting to hear Canada just a little while ago indicating it would not meet its commitments under the Kyoto protocol and now calling on developing countries to take binding reduction targets," he told a press conference today at the Bali climate-change conference.
"So I wonder how that's going to be received," he added.
The latest criticism of Canada's position is coming from respected scientists and from fellow negotiators at the conference.
Rajendra Pachauri, head of the climate science panel that was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize today, has blasted the Harper government for its climate stance.
"This particular government has been a government of skeptics," said Mr. Pachauri, chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which shared the Nobel Prize with Al Gore.
"They do not want to do anything on climate change," he added in a published interview in New Delhi.
Su Wei, a senior Chinese delegate at the Bali negotiations, said Canada and Japan are emerging as the most uncooperative nations at the climate talks. In an interview with the Financial Times on the weekend, the Chinese negotiator said Canada was particularly uncooperative in its opposition to binding commitments to force industrialized nations to cut their emissions.
The governments of Ontario and Quebec, meanwhile, are trying to dissociate themselves from the Harper government. At the Bali conference today, Ontario environment minister John Gerretsen and Quebec environment minister Line Beauchamp insisted that the Harper government does not speak for their provinces — and they will spread that message to other countries at the Bali negotiations.
Other countries have "realized that the Canadian position, as formulated by the federal government, is not necessarily endorsed by the people of Ontario," Mr. Gerretsen told reporters.
Federal environment minister John Baird, asked about the criticism by the UN climate chief, was quick to blame the previous Liberal government. He said he agreed "unequivocally" with Mr. de Boer's criticism of the Canadian record. "Canada has talked the talk but it hasn't walked the walk," Mr. Baird said .
"That's why we'll be judged by the actions we take, not be the promises and commitments that we make…. I can appreciate, when people look at the statistics, the huge increase that we've seen, it's natural that they're skeptical."
GEOFFREY YORK
Globe and Mail Update
December 10, 2007 at 10:50 AM EST
NUSA DUA, Indonesia — Canada is under mounting attack at the Bali climate-change conference, putting it on the defensive as the conference begins its final week of negotiations.
Yvo de Boer, head of the United Nations climate-change agency, said Canada seems to be hypocritical in what it demands from other countries.
"I personally find it interesting to hear Canada just a little while ago indicating it would not meet its commitments under the Kyoto protocol and now calling on developing countries to take binding reduction targets," he told a press conference today at the Bali climate-change conference.
"So I wonder how that's going to be received," he added.
The latest criticism of Canada's position is coming from respected scientists and from fellow negotiators at the conference.
Rajendra Pachauri, head of the climate science panel that was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize today, has blasted the Harper government for its climate stance.
"This particular government has been a government of skeptics," said Mr. Pachauri, chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which shared the Nobel Prize with Al Gore.
"They do not want to do anything on climate change," he added in a published interview in New Delhi.
Su Wei, a senior Chinese delegate at the Bali negotiations, said Canada and Japan are emerging as the most uncooperative nations at the climate talks. In an interview with the Financial Times on the weekend, the Chinese negotiator said Canada was particularly uncooperative in its opposition to binding commitments to force industrialized nations to cut their emissions.
The governments of Ontario and Quebec, meanwhile, are trying to dissociate themselves from the Harper government. At the Bali conference today, Ontario environment minister John Gerretsen and Quebec environment minister Line Beauchamp insisted that the Harper government does not speak for their provinces — and they will spread that message to other countries at the Bali negotiations.
Other countries have "realized that the Canadian position, as formulated by the federal government, is not necessarily endorsed by the people of Ontario," Mr. Gerretsen told reporters.
Federal environment minister John Baird, asked about the criticism by the UN climate chief, was quick to blame the previous Liberal government. He said he agreed "unequivocally" with Mr. de Boer's criticism of the Canadian record. "Canada has talked the talk but it hasn't walked the walk," Mr. Baird said .
"That's why we'll be judged by the actions we take, not be the promises and commitments that we make…. I can appreciate, when people look at the statistics, the huge increase that we've seen, it's natural that they're skeptical."