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Canada failing in fight against climate change, UN panel says
News Articles | The Montreal Gazette | September 21, 2009
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Canada should follow the lead of the European Union, which has pledged to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 25 per cent below 1990 levels by 2020. In contrast, Canada’s plan is to only cut emissions by 20 per cent below 2006 levels by 2020, a target that many scientific and environmental observers say is far too low.
“In the last couple of years, I’m afraid, Canada has not been seen as sitting at the table,” Rajendra Pachauri, head of the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said in Montreal this morning. “I think Canada should be doing much more.”
Pachauri, who accepted the 2007 Nobel Prize for the IPCC along with former U.S. vice-president Al Gore for their work on climate change, said Canada could follow the lead of countries like Germany and Japan, which have aggressive emissions targets, and have embraced renewable energy.
He said until technologies like carbon capture and storage that would sequester greenhouse gases produced by the oil sands are better developed, the projects in Alberta’s Athabaska region should be put on hold.
“It’s something that perhaps could lead to regrets later on, so you might as well make sure that all the requirements that are to be met to ensure environmental protection are taken in hand right at the beginning rather than being forced to take actions later,” Pachauri said.
Tagged with: climate change, united nations, icpp, rajendra pachauri
