Bali: Canada – the Prodigal Country Backs Down

authordefault
on

Like some barely reformed miscreant, who wins cheers for promising to give up his bad habits, Canada won a huge ovation in Bali on the weekend when it stopped blocking an international agreement on emissionย targets.

This is no reason for a surge in national pride among Canadian readers. Canada spent most of the last two weeks refusing to accept any emission targets – refusing, in fact, to participate in any international carbon-cutting exercise that did not bind developing countries to take action from dayย one.

At the same time, the U.S. – the only developed country in the world to have spurned the Kyoto agreement and (coincidentally?) the biggest producer of greenhouse gases on the planet, was also resisting emission targets AND was trying to dodge having to share green technologies with struggling countries in the developingย world.

Both countries caved in at the last minute. The Americans signed onto the Bali โ€œroadmap,โ€ which brings the U.S. formally back into post-Kyoto negotiations. That’s a goodย thing.

And Canada’s Environment Minister John Baird finally abandoned its obstructionism, allowing the inclusion of non-binding emission targets for the post-Kyoto round. That would be good, too, if Baird had not immediately said that Canada has no intention of trying to meet even the modest end of the 25- to 40-per-cent reductionย targets.

So, again, like prodigal children, Canada and the U.S. are winning praise – not for being good, but because, for a brief period, we have stopped being bad. Now it’s time for both governments to prove that they may deserve a little of the warmth they have generated. If they don’t, they may discover too quickly that Canadian and American voters, like the people in the rest of the world, have figured this out, are tired of being humiliated on the international stage, and are ready to look for a government that might do a betterย job.

authordefault
Admin's short bio, lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur adipisicing elit. Voluptate maxime officiis sed aliquam! Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur adipisicing elit.

Related Posts

on

Decision a blow to campaigners, who say the ads gave Saudi Aramco unearned climate credibility.

Decision a blow to campaigners, who say the ads gave Saudi Aramco unearned climate credibility.
on

Lawmakers warned that oil companies are using increasingly sophisticated messaging tactics to portray themselves as climate champions at the UK's first parliamentary debate on calls to ban adverti...
on

Labour's Jacob Collier warns parliamentary debate of "coordinated strategy" by oil companies to delay climate action.

Labour's Jacob Collier warns parliamentary debate of "coordinated strategy" by oil companies to delay climate action.
on

Critics fear that Equinorโ€™s latest UK education deal is aimed at quelling opposition to North Sea drilling.

Critics fear that Equinorโ€™s latest UK education deal is aimed at quelling opposition to North Sea drilling.