When George W. Bush left the White House a year ago, many
people in America and around the world collectively breathed a sigh of relief.
His eight years in office made up what many call "the lost decade"
for American leadership, particularly in the race against time to transition to
a clean energy economy before our atmosphere turns toxic because of greenhouse
gas pollution.
Likewise, will Canada's embarrassment at the recent climate
summit in Copenhagen be considered the low point in Canada's "lost
decade"? Only time will tell. But without a significant course correction,
Canada's losing streak could drag on into the G8 and G20 meetings in Ontario
this June.
Before then, on Feb. 6, Stephen Harper will celebrate his
four-year anniversary as Prime Minister. He rightly critiqued the Liberal
government before him for its four years of inaction after ratifying the Kyoto
Protocol, but with nothing to show from his own government, this refrain has
lost its punch.
Three consecutive environment ministers under Harper have
failed to implement a single major policy to cut our growing emissions. The
government's most recent attempt to cut industrial emissions, called
"Turning the Corner," skidded off the road at the first bend. The
only major federal incentive program for renewable energy has run out of
funding, and Canada's government won the "Fossil of the Year" award
in Copenhagen as the country doing the most to stand in the way of meaningful
international action on global warming.
Luckily, some provinces have tried to fill the leadership
vacuum left behind by Ottawa. British Columbia has put in place an economy-wide
carbon price. Ontario is implementing its Green Energy Act that is igniting a
massive scale up of technologies like wind and solar. Quebec is committed to
reducing its emissions by 20 per cent below the 1990 level by 2020, the
strongest target in North America.
But action from provinces alone is not enough. The lack of
federal leadership on climate change creates a patchwork of policy across the
country that is inefficient for business, and lets the fastest growing
polluters in Alberta and Saskatchewan off the hook-feeding a growing sense of
inequality as some Canadians do more than others to reduce emissions.
We are losing time to build a national consensus on a
pathway to address climate change because Ottawa is failing to do its job to
unite the country in all of our common interest. Where do the G8 and G20 come
in? With countries now coming to terms with what is-and isn't-in the Copenhagen
Accord, there are critical questions still to be resolved internationally. The
G8/G20 meetings can't solve everything, but they can contribute momentum
towards the fair, ambitious and binding agreement we need, particularly by
agreeing on financial support for poorer countries as they take action on
climate change.
Unfortunately, as summit host, the federal government has
not yet stepped up with any bold ideas for climate leadership. Instead, it
seems to want to change the channel away from climate to the economy, but this
is ultimately futile, since the two issues are integrated, a fact recognized by
many of Canada's competitors. The next job creating industrial revolution will
centre on de-carbonizing the world economy, a revolution that other countries are
leading instead of us.
We can still find our way. Done properly, putting a
meaningful price on greenhouse gas pollution right across the Canadian economy
could help reduce the deficit. For instance, Ireland just introduced a carbon
tax to generate much-needed funds during the downturn; a tax on gasoline and
diesel of $22.40/tonne is expected to raise more than $520-million annually,
with an overall direct impact on households of less than $5 per week.
Along with putting a price on carbon, we need strong federal
leadership to ensure our clean energy companies can compete in the global
market of low-impact renewable energy and energy efficiency engineering and
manufacturing.
Canada needs to be part of this emerging market-currently
worth $250-billion, and growing rapidly. Our economic future depends on it.
With a stony silence emanating from a prorogued Ottawa,
people can be forgiven for thinking we're not coming out of our lost decade
anytime soon. But polls show that Canadians are tired of watching other
countries lead the clean energy economy, and want those clean energy jobs to be
created right here. Sooner or later, one of our federal politicians will tap
into this mood, and propose policies to pull Canada out of its funk and throw
ourselves into leading the next industrial revolution.
Whoever does that well could ride the sense of relief right
into a majority government.
-30-
Marlo Raynolds and Rick Smith are the executive directors of
the Pembina Institute and Environmental Defence, respectively.
