Poznan climate talks: Canada must change course

Press release from the Pembina Institute:

December 13, 2008 – In the wake of a disappointing outcome at the UN climate talks here
this week, Canadian environmentalists said that Canada must urgently
re-think its reluctance to take strong action on global warming.

Poznan was to be a critical stepping stone on the road to Copenhagen,
where countries have promised to meet next December to renew the Kyoto
Protocol. “But too little  progress was made here – and Canada has to
accept a significant part of the blame for its role in delaying the
process,” said Graham Saul, Climate Action Network Canada-Réseau Action
Climat.

Indeed, Canada earned the “Colossal Fossil” award for being the most
obstructive country in these talks. Canada also placed next to last in
an international comparison of countries’ climate change performance.

“The challenge now is to accelerate climate negotiations through the
coming year to ensure that – unlike Poznan – Copenhagen is an
unqualified success,” said Dale Marshall, David Suzuki Foundation.
“Canadians are calling for their government to be a leader in tackling
global warming – but we saw the opposite here in Poznan.”

“Canada’s current emissions target falls far short of what the science
demands, and the government has so far failed to come to the table with
meaningful support for climate action in poorer countries,” said
Matthew Bramley, Pembina Institute. “The government must fix both these
problems if Canada is to be part of the solution one year from now in
Copenhagen.”

Steven Guilbeault of Équiterre said that success in these negotiations
depends on the richest nations in the world showing far more leadership
than they have to date.

“While the developing nations came to Poznan prepared to negotiate,
industrialized countries often met their initiatives with silence,” he
said. “So while the Poznan meeting did produce a mandate to move into
full negotiations next year, we won’t succeed in those negotiations
until countries like Canada show that they’re willing to do their fair
share.”

“Canada needs to get serious about its 2020 target,” said Dave Martin
of Greenpeace. “Industrialized countries have to reduce greenhouse gas
emissions at least 25% below 1990 in 2020 in order to prevent a climate
disaster. The Harper government has continued to push its totally
inadequate 3% reduction target. Canadians expect their government to
lead to or get out of the way.”

One bright spot in the talks was an agreement to make the Adaptation
Fund, which will finance adaptation to climate change in developing
countries, operational.

“It’s a small example, but it shows the potential when the negotiating
countries get onto the same page,” said Rosa Kouri of the Canadian
Youth Climate Coalition. “We need to see a lot more of that this year –
more effort, more commitment, and more reason to be optimistic coming
into Copenhagen.”