Harper to attend Copenhagen

Posted on 30. Nov, 2009 by Rosa Kouri in Canada, Uncategorized

So the word is out, Prime Minister Stephen Harper is now attending the Copenhagen talks. Following announcements by US President Barack Obama and Chinese Prime Minister Hu Jintao, this isn’t that much of a surprise – Harper always said he would go if everyone else did too.

In Parliament, the climate change motion passed last Tuesday, reaffirming that a majority of parliamentarians in the House of Commons are committed to strong targets for industrialised countries.

In other news, the Quebec government has announced the most ambitious target in the country.

Wow?! What’s happening here? Positive news for a change? I hardly know how to process it. Could this be a change in the wind? (See folks, we’re all braced for a dramatic Hollywood ending.)

But in true dramatic fashion, there have been lots of tense moments to balance our innocent hopes. Startingly, many Canadians remain unsatisfied, there was another sit-in mid-week (what is happening to this country!), this time at the office of the Minister of Labour, Rona Ambrose, in Calgary. And then today, ANOTHER sit-in began at Finance Minister’ Jim Flaherty’s constituency office.

More than just Canadians, it looks like the whole commonwealth is unsatisfied. According to the Guardian, there’s a movement to have Canada expelled from this venerable group of nations. Our nation’s lack of inaction on climate change is grounds for blacklisting, putting us in the same camp as apartheid-era South Africa. Ouch! That’s got to sting our proud international reputation.

And, Environment Minister Jim Prentice acknowledged in parliament that the government is hoping for an agreement on climate change targets in Copenhagen. But… he did add, “One thing the Conservative government will never do is fly over to Copenhagen, pull a target out of the air that is ill-suited to our industrial base, to our geography, and agree to damaging the Canadian economy”. Albert Premier Ed Stelmach has joined the conversation, defending the beleaguered oil sands, which seem under relentless attack from everyone and their grandmother.

Fine fine. Of course our politicians would never agree to something that would damage the Canadian economy. Can we make them promise that?

Now lets take a look at the whole picture financially - billions of dollars in assets are currently at risk from unseasonable warming in the arctic (go here for the full report on this research). Can we protect those investments too please? I seem to remember that a decent risk analysis looks at all assets and liabilities as the basis for sound, impartial, calculations. Let’s get cracking.

Much love, en route to Copenhagen

Rosa

Tags: Copenhagen, Harper, sit-in, Stephen Harper