Climate Action Network Canada response to Conservative Platform

April 8th, 2011

In response to the Conservative Party Platform released this morning, Graham Saul, Executive Director of Climate Action Network Canada, responded as follows:

“The Platform confirms where the Conservatives really stand on climate change and lays out a plan that would ensure that Canada continues to be the worst country in the industrialized world when it comes to taking action to deal with this urgent problem. With nothing new to what we already saw in the 2011 federal budget, the Platform proposes to continue the reckless approach of the past five years to one of the biggest global challenges facing the world today.

The Platform incorrectly states that the Government “introduced regulations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the production of electricity.” In fact, despite promising to do so in 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, and 2010, the Government has not imposed any regulations to limit industrial greenhouse gas pollution. The Government has spent the past five years promising to take this action and in practice has done nothing. There are no specifics in this Platform that would suggest that this track record would change under a re-elected Conservative Government.

The Conservative Platform notes that the Government brought its targets for reducing greenhouse gas pollution in line with those of the Obama Administration, but it fails to point out that the Government had to weaken its already inadequate targets in order to achieve this alignment. The Platform also argues that the Conservative Government “has a climate change plan”, but there is in fact no indication that the Government has a plan that would come even close to achieving its own weakened targets.

In the 2011 budget the Government refused to renew the only major federal program designed to support renewable energy (ecoEnergy for Renewables) and this decision remains unchanged in today’s Platform. The Platform would also kill the popular home energy retrofit program after the 2011 fiscal year. Furthermore the Platform makes no mention of ending the roughly $1.3 billion a year in handouts to big oil.

This Platform shows no urgency and no ambition when it comes to dealing with climate change and supporting the clean energy economy. Prime Minister Harper’s Platform indicates that the Conservatives have no intention of turning around their reckless positions when it comes to dealing with one of the biggest crises of our time.”

For further media inquires please contact Graham Saul at 613.558.3368