Now that Stephen Harper has made an embarrassing about-face on whether or not he will attend next week’s Copenhagen climate summit, it is up to the prime minister to bring forward and address the concerns of Canadians while also rescuing our country’s image on the environmental stage.
When Barack Obama announced he was going to be stopping by the summit, which is aimed at negotiating a successor to the Kyoto Protocol, of which Canada is a signatory, Harper was left with little choice but to attend as well. Despite staff assertions he’d been thinking about it for weeks, Harper only changed his mind after the United States’ president’s announcement. Now our leader is facing a significant challenge.
On the home front, Canadians are growing increasingly irritated with the Conservative government’s approach to climate change and are letting Harper and his cabinet know. The last week has seen a resurrection of non-violent civil disobedience as environmental activists have occupied the offices of three federal ministers — Jim Prentice (Environment), Rona Ambrose (Labour) and on Monday Jim Flaherty (Finance). Each group’s demands are simple — to push for an aggressive approach to fighting climate change at Copenhagen. Needless to say, none of the three occupations have ended with government capitulation. All of the protestors have eventually been peacefully removed by police after several hours.
But if a series of sit-ins isn’t enough to convince Harper of the public will to fight climate change both nationally and globally, a new survey shapes the argument even further. Conducted by Harris-Decima, two-thirds of Canadians said they agreed with the statement, “Climate change is mankind’s defining crisis, and demands a commensurate response.” A majority said it’s Canada’s moral obligation to address climate change. Support was strongest in Quebec, but faded slightly as the phone poll of 1,009 individuals moved further west, out to Alberta.
Internationally, the European press is playing up the importance of the summit and is being especially hard on Canada for failing to live up to its Kyoto commitments, as well as Alberta’s carbon-heavy oilsands. In a list of the summit’s key players, the UK’s Guardian painted our country as the “dirty old man of the climate world,” taking time to note that as of 2007 we were still 34 per cent above our Kyoto Protocol targets. While non-governmental organization scientists are calling for a treaty imposing 25 to 40 per cent reductions below 1990 emissions levels, Canada’s 20 per cent below 2006 numbers by 2020 pledge falls well short of that mark.
The global consensus suggests the summit will not produce a legally binding treaty by the time it wraps on Dec. 18. Denmark has stated it will put a cap on how long post-summit negotiations can continue. While Harper might be attending begrudgingly, now would be his best opportunity to change both our country’s reputation and his own. An aggressive, effective campaign to cut emission levels below 1990 levels coupled with financial aid for developing countries to help them reduce pollution would definitely get the attention of world leaders and voters at home. No one wants to be branded a “dirty old man,” especially a country as internationally renowned as ours. Both the planet and our reputation deserve Harper’s best efforts.
