An Open Letter to President Barack Obama

Dear President Obama,

Welcome to Canada!

The vast majority of Canadians agree with you that the threats of a warming planet are urgent and require real action. The vast majority of Canadians favour meeting Kyoto targets and playing a progressive role in global negotiations. Unfortunately, this majority does not include the minority government of Stephen Harper.

We need your help and leadership. The failure of the Bush Administration to ratify Kyoto and the abdication of responsibility of the Harper government through a repudiation of this country’s legally binding Kyoto targets, together, constitute an unforgivable betrayal of our responsibilities to our children and grandchildren.

Time is running out. And that means that the time for recriminations is past. The Green Party of Canada embraces your tone, calling for cooperation, an open hand and accepting our responsibilities for the good of all humanity and all life on this fragile and sacred orb.

Now is the time to focus on the immediate challenge of avoiding “points of no return” in increased greenhouse gases (ghg). If we do not act decisively to stop and reverse the global growth in ghg emissions by 2015, according to the International Energy Agency, it will likely be impossible to avoid escalating, irreversible global average temperature increases -- the scenario known as a “runaway global warming effect.” The impacts of such a worst case scenario are unthinkable, but they loom large if we fail to act. The flooding of every coastal city, massive droughts and bush fires, melting ice caps, millions of environmental refugees, worsening resource conflicts, mass extinctions and devastating extreme weather events could be unavoidable.

Canada’s targets are not realistic or effective, committing to reductions of 50% below 2006 levels by 2050, compared to the minimum required action, while your Administration has endorsed of 80% reductions below 1990 levels by 2050. We urge you to amend the U.S. 2020 targets to move more aggressively toward the U.S. Kyoto commitments. Meanwhile, alone in the world, the Harper government uses 2006 as a base year instead of that enshrined in international law as the reference year – 1990. In 2006, Canada’s emissions were 24% above those in 1990. This weakness is compounded by a total absence of regulations or plans to get there.

The world, particularly the wealthy industrialized countries, must move quickly. Short-term reductions such as those supported by the European Union are urgently needed from Canada and the United States. We commend you for focussing the U.S. economic stimulus on clean and renewable energy and investments in energy efficiency. The U.S. and many other nations around the world have identified investments in a low-carbon future as fundamental in any economic recovery package.

The priority for action in 2009 is to shift our economy while negotiating the next phase of international law for global action. The 15th Conference of the Parties (COP) of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change is all-important. In December 2009, these negotiations will take place in Copenhagen, Denmark. With the requirement that ghg levels peak and drop off no later than 2012, the Copenhagen talks are clearly our last chance. On the last day of the 14th COP in Poznan, Poland in December 2008, former Vice President Al Gore brought the good news that help was on the way. He shared the news that your Administration would become actively engaged in the negotiations for global targets post-2012. He suggested the talks needed to be moved from the large and ponderous climate diplomacy of annual COPs to the high-powered venues of heads of government. Mr. Gore suggested three heads of government high-level talks were required to ensure success in Copenhagen. We agree.

We urge you to champion such a fast-track to meaningful talks and a negotiated framework for rapid reductions in emissions, while augmenting and protecting forests and other carbon sinks. We urge you to set a pace demanded by the science, not by the political calculations that so easily capture elected officials. We will push the minority government of Mr. Harper to run to catch up with the pace you have set. We can reduce emissions in Canada in half solely through improved energy efficiency. We can create millions of jobs in retrofitting existing building stock, building renewable energy production and expanding efficient and convenient rail and inner-city infrastructure.

Make haste. We will catch up.

In gratitude, hope and solidarity,



Elizabeth E. May, O.C.
Leader