OTTAWA – Harper’s Conservatives tabled the 2012 Progress Report of the Federal Sustainable Development Strategy on February 15th. This significant document makes public Canada’s latest greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions numbers.
The Report bluntly states on page 24 that “Canada’s 2020 emissions are projected to be about one half of the way to the target.”
“What Canadians need to know is that Harper’s 2020 target, the ‘Copenhagen Target’, was the second re-setting to a weaker than Kyoto target. In Copenhagen, Stephen Harper committed to reducing Canada's GHG emissions to 17% below 2005 levels by 2020. Despite the misleading repetition of the claim that we are 'on track' to reach that target, in reality, emissions have risen since 2010, and Environment Canada's report projects GHG emissions to be 720 megatons by 2020. In 2010 they were 692 MT,” said Green Leader Elizabeth May, Member of Parliament for Saanich-Gulf Islands.
“Environment Canada's report makes it clear that we are not even close to the pathetic Copenhagen target. In fact, rather than cutting emissions by 17% of 2005 levels by 2020, we will only have made a 1.5% dent in 2005 emissions by 2020. This is an abject failure,” added May.
“Environment Minister Peter Kent finds these numbers ‘encouraging’. This attitude is suicidal and shows how little Harper’s Conservatives understand of the grave climate crisis we all face,” concluded May.
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Notes
1) Environment Canada has used 2 different numbers for 2005 emissions. 740 MT, and an adjusted 731 MT. If we use 740, a 20 MT drop to 720 MT is a 3% drop, if we use 731MT, an 11 MT drop is 1.5%.
2) Canada’s historical greenhouse gas emissions and projections to 2020 (source : 2012 Progress Report, p. 24)
3) Canada's GHG Targets
Target
Target Dates
All GHGs
(Mtonnes CO2eq)
Year Target Set
Kyoto
6% below 1990
2008-2012
558
1997
“Made in Canada”
20% below 2006
2020
574
2006
Copenhagen
17% below 2005
2020
607
2009
Science-based
25% below 1990
2020
442
2007
4) Green Party of Canada’s backgrounder on climate change.
Media Contact:
Stéphane Vigneault
Communications Coordinator, Green Party of Canada
cell: 613.614.4916