Canada Takes The Floor To Announce “We are Not Here To Discuss Our Domestic Targets”
Posted on 08. Oct, 2009 by Adam MacIsaac in Canada
While it might not come to a surprise to some that on Tuesday Canada took the floor in the Annex-1 mitigation session to announce that “We Are Not Here To Discuss Our Domestic Targets.” I am not sure if it could have ever been the case since it is hard to have a discussion on something that barely does exist. While there was a small understanding of what Canada had in its cards with the Environment Canada “Turning The Corner Plan” which had been slated to be released at COP 14 2007 in Bali, Indonesia by the then Environment Minister John Baird his decidion to not be present for the only official Canadian side event to present the plan to the audience of Canadians and environmental NGO’s left busines industry delegates to sweat out the quesitons from those in attendance. The less than ambitious Turning The Corner Plan had turned out to be just that, something you might hear many stories about like the mythical unicorns but it did infact not actually exist as the plan was scrapped and now it leaves Canada again riding strongly throughout the UNFCCC process without any real direction towards Copenhagen . 
But Canada does have domestic targets – albeit they are not in the necessary and fair category of 25-40% below 1990 levels by 2020, and 80% below 1990 by 2050 – they do exist: 2.7% below 1990 levels by 2020.
They don’t have enforceable regulation either. That’s why we need to be helping push forward Bill C-311 here at home, which has the targets to which the international community aspires.
A few back-ground posts for readers:
Number Crunch: Where Canada’s Emission Targets Stand
(Bill C-311) Slit Leggings at American Apparel and Current Climate Policy in Canada
Canada is Not Here to Negotiate Its Domestic Targets
Thanks for the addiional information Zoe. I am sure that it will help to provide a better understanding of what Canada’s position is.