Spending all day in Copenhagen's Bella Centre means I feel very far removed from Canadian news these days. So the arrival of a couple of new and interesting climate polls gave us a welcome update on views from home.
Yesterday brought the release of a poll on climate targets from Léger Marketing by the environmental organization Équiterre.
The survey of 1502 Canadians found that 74% support stronger emission targets from Canada. (Respondents were told about the stronger provincial emission targets in Quebec, Ontario and B.C. as part of the question.)
Earlier this week, a new Harris-Decima survey found that 64% of respondents feel that environmental initiatives should retain equal priority to the economy, despite the downturn. Eighty-one per cent want to see Canada develop its own climate change policy rather than waiting to harmonize with the U.S.
But another number from that survey stood out — just 16% of the more than 1,000 surveyed consider Canada an environmental leader.
Of course, the next week or so gives Canada an unparalleled opportunity to change that statistic.
