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Open, unbiased science hearings needed to end climate quagmire

Canada can do more than follow on climate change



Environment Minister Peter Kent announced last week that Canada will follow the United States on climate change. This was no surprise. The Canadian government has been following U.S. climate policy for years. Our government has even made it clear to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) that Canada's greenhouse gas emission target—a 17% reduction below 2005 levels by 2020—is exactly the same as that of the Americans and only will be implemented if the U.S. implements theirs. There is no doubt that our most important climate polices are decided in Washington DC, not Ottawa.
The reason Kent highlighted this situation right now is clear. The Canadian government is trying to make it easier for President Barack Obama to approve the Keystone XL pipeline from the Alberta oil sands to refineries in Texas. If Canadian climate policy is seen to be little different from that of the U.S., then it is not credible for American campaigners to condemn the pipeline on the grounds that the oil is coming from a rogue nation with regards to “stopping climate change.” From a climatic perspective, importing the product from Canada becomes equivalent to getting it from another part of the U.S.

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The approach of simply following the U.S. is politically clever for the Conservatives. It absolves them of blame for bad greenhouse gas policy, whether the approach is too weak, as David Suzuki and other campaigners assert, too strong, as feared by industry, or not needed at all, as the International Climate Science Coalition maintains. The Harper government can respond that Canada had no choice but to follow the Americans since our economies are so tightly linked. And they are right. We cannot afford to have climate and energy policies that are too different from those of the U.S. unless we are prepared to accept huge financial penalties and endless legal and diplomatic rows. Yet the federal government need not simply be a follower in all respects. They can help build the foundation to make it politically feasible for Canada and the U.S. to exercise their right to eventually withdraw from the UNFCCC, the root of most costly and misguided climate policies. Much as former Prime Minister Jean Chrétien did concerning the economic impacts of the Kyoto Protocol in the lead-up to our ratification of the treaty in 2002, Stephen Harper could order open public hearings about the science of climate change, inviting the country’s leading experts on both sides of the debate to testify. The Government's response to inevitable accusations that they are thereby revealing themselves to be “climate change deniers” is simple. They can show themselves to be honest brokers by merely saying: “We are not climate experts. We do not know the future of climate change. But we recognize the considerable controversy in the field. Therefore, before spending billions of dollars more on the issue, we have an obligation to the people of Canada to properly investigate the current state of this complex and rapidly-evolving science. Only then will we have the knowledge necessary to decide on the best approach to the climate file.” As a result of well-publicized hearings across the country, enthusiasm to “stop climate change” would largely evaporate from public consciousness as Canadians come to understand that meaningfully forecasting future climate is not possible. Plans to actually control our planet’s climate will then be seen as ridiculous. Then our leaders can finally end our participation in the most expensive science hoax in history and focus instead on real environmental problems. Kent told the Guelph Chamber of Commerce on January 25 about “the important role of science in driving the development of world-class regulations in Canada”. Now is the Government’s chance to be remembered as leaders who actually did this on the climate file. Tom Harris is the Executive Director of the International Climate Science Coalition (ICSC).


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Tom Harris -- Bio and Archives

Tom Harris is Executive Director of the Ottawa, Canada-based International Climate Science Coalition at http://www.icsc-climate.com.


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