Toronto Mayor David Miller accepts Canada¹s 1st and 2nd Fossil of the Day Awards
(Copenhagen, Denmark) Canada seems intent on adding to its Fossil of the Day awards collection, successfully saying enough destructive things in the last 24 hours to win them both the first and second place fossil today. This 'prize', given to countries who are blocking progress at the United Nations climate summit, is awarded daily by a coalition of 400 leading international NGOs.
Especially noteworthy is the willingness of Toronto Mayor David Miller to attend the Fossil Awards Ceremonies to accept these non-prestigious awards on behalf of Canada.
"It is with disappointment and regret that I receive both the first and second place Fossil awards today," said Toronto Mayor David Miller, Chair of the C40 climate leadership group. "As Mayor of Canada's largest city, I can assure the rest of the world that there is leadership in Canada. Provincial and Municipal governments are taking climate change seriously even as the federal government is lagging. We must send the Harper government the message that Canadians find this unacceptable and we want real action in Copenhagen. We expect the government to support a fair, ambitious and binding deal."
1st place Fossil Award: It doesn't get much more Fossil worthy than this: Canada's Environment Minister, Jim Prentice, said yesterday that "it's in Canada's interests to replace the Kyoto Protocol with a new agreement." He didn't explain whether that's because he's scared to face Kyoto's compliance committee, or because he's hoping no one will notice that Canada's current 2020 target (3% below 1990) is weaker than the one it promised to meet under Kyoto (6%).
2nd place Fossil Award: Canada's chief negotiator insisted today that his country's target of -3% below 1990 are, in fact, based on science. Last we checked, the IPCC scientific community called for 25-40% emission reductions below 1990 levels. The Fossil Supreme Command Council can only conclude that he wasn't referring to climate science at all, but rather the scienceof mathematics--because -3% is, indeed, a number. (Although a very small one.) Speaking of math, Canada already promised in the Kyoto Protocol to go to -6% from 1990 levels. Oops! Further, when the chief negotiator was asked this morning if he believed Canada's so called 'science based-target' would protect melting summer sea-ice in the North West passage, he responded quite accurately that he is not a scientist and therefore cannot predict sea-ice. It also appears that Canada's environment minister is suffering a serious case of CAN envy. Yesterday, he invented his own prize, the Hot Air of the Day Award, and tried to give it to a Canadian environmental group. It's a true honor to be recognized for hot air by this government, who are absolute masters at it themselves, but sadly we have to decline. Sorry Minister, but you're going to have to sign on to a fair, ambitious and binding deal before we'll consider your application to CAN.
-30-
Fossil of the Day will be presented daily in Copenhagen from a network of over 400 leading international non-governmental organizations following a vote to determine which country had done the most over the course of the day to delay, stall, and otherwise disrupt this crucial negotiating sessions in Copenhagen in December.
