Oh boy… “Despite sustained misgivings within party and caucus ranks, the federal Conservative government has, however reluctantly, come around to acknowledging that human-generated greenhouse gases are a driving factor in global climate change that is becoming increasingly evident and undeniable.”
What is still lacking, however, is a comprehensive approach to the problem and adequate information to educate the Canadian public as to the scope of the effort required to cut those emissions to sustainable levels, and the costs involved.
These failings were cast into sharp relief by this month’s report by the federal commissioner of the environment and sustainability, which challenged the government’s assurances that it has an effective climate-change plan in place with an achievable target for greenhouse-gas reduction.
That target was set three years ago. It called for a 17-per-cent reduction in Canadian emissions over the 2005 level by the year 2020. It matched the target set by the U.S. at the time, in keeping with the Conservative government’s assertion that it is unrealistic to set more ambitious reduction goals than our southern neighbour – something the preceding Liberal government did in embracing the Kyoto-accord target in 1997.
Canada is trying to negotiate a free trade agreement with the EU right now. I’m sure the EU has carbon controls are on the negotiating table. So the Federal conservatives are putting something together to keep the EU socialists happy. But when it comes down to it, a carbon price or cap&trade will be a hard sell to Canadians right now. We’ll see what they come up with, those fruity EU socialists can be hard to please.
“Canada is trying to negotiate a free trade agreement with the EU right now. I’m sure the EU has carbon controls are on the negotiating table.”
Taking the “free” out of free trade.