Clare Demerse, Associate Director of the Pembina Institute’s Climate Change Program, made the following statement in response to the report tabled today by the Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development. The report’s second chapter is an assessment of the government’s climate change plans, required under the Kyoto Protocol Implementation Act:
“The Environment Commissioner has shown that the government has repeatedly overstated the effectiveness of its proposals to cut greenhouse gases, and has failed to meet legal requirements on the transparency of its climate change plans.
Today’s report shows that the government has overstated near-term emission reductions from its ‘Turning the Corner’ plan for industry by a factor of four. The report also highlights the continued absence of the draft regulations needed to implement ‘Turning the Corner’.
In addition, the Commissioner confirmed that the government has failed to produce a climate change plan that meets the standards of transparency set by the law — thereby hindering Canadians’ ability to hold the government to account.
These troubling findings underline the need for Canada to take a much more ambitious approach to fighting climate change. This year’s critical UN climate negotiations provide Canada’s government with an opportunity to do so at a time when all countries’ actions will be under intense scrutiny. To help rebuild Canada’s credibility, Environment Minister Jim Prentice needs to initiate the legal process required to cap Canadian emissions before the UN climate conference in Copenhagen this December.
It is regrettable that the Auditor General has once again chosen to publish her own report on the same day as that of the Environment Commissioner. The Environment Commissioner conducts critical work that deserves the undivided attention of Parliament and Canadians.”
The Pembina Institute is a non-partisan sustainable energy think tank.
