Canada wins yet another fossil for being three times worse than we thought
(Copenhagen, Denmark) It has been a tough two days for Canada. With hoax press releases, and leaked documents that Canadians wish were a hoax, Canada maintains its fossil lead with its 7th award of the conference. Canada has achieved this milestone event for negotiating in bad faith here in Copenhagen. 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.
“The government is lying to Canadians, to negotiators and to the rest of the world,” says Graham Saul from Climate Action Network Canada. Leaked Cabinet documents from Canada’s Environment Minister, Jim Prentice, show that Canada has absolutely no intention of meeting its 2020 target. Instead, the government plans to fry Canadians and the planet by letting oil and gas emissions rise by about another 37% above current levels by 2020.
“The leaked plan proposes to weaken reduction targets for big polluters like the tar sands by a factor of three,” says Dave Martin of Greenpeace. "Canada's previous target was already too weak, this makes it meaningless." Canada's promise of an absolute reduction of 3% below 1990 levels – so often repeated to negotiators here – has been revealed as an outright lie.
“This government has seldom filled us with hope, but even we expected better than this. It’s time to start writing climate policy for Canadians and the world, not for the tar sands” says Graham Saul. At a time when over 100 heads of state are preparing to arrive in Copenhagen to move the world forward on climate change, Stephen Harper’s Cabinet seems to be planning to take Canada backwards.
-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.
