From Tristan Edis as Canada’s Conservative Party is thrown out of office:
The prospects for the forthcoming global climate conference to be held in Paris later this year have received a significant diplomatic boost. The two developed world leaders most intent on undermining the conference – Australia’s Tony Abbott and Canada’s Stephen Harper – have been dispatched to the political wilderness.
…Back in June 2014 when Abbott visited Harper in Canada, the two put on an act of professing concern for climate change while describing a policy that would actually limit carbon emissions as something that would “clobber the economy” in Abbott’s words while being “job killing” in Harper’s words. As Climate Spectator noted in Harper and Abbott: Two fossils fooling no one, what was plainly obvious was that both Harper and Abbott had confused the interests of the coal mining industry (in Abbott’s case) and tar sands (Harper) with the interests of their respective country as a whole.
And the Canadian “Liberals” climate manifesto:
WHEREAS an overwhelming scientific consensus confirms that the Earth’s climate system is unequivocally warming as a result of human activities that increase atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases;
WHEREAS the resulting climate change has well-documented severe environmental, economic and social costs, and already contributes to 400,000 deaths a year globally;
WHEREAS environmental protection and economic growth are not mutually exclusive;
BE IT RESOLVED that Canada urgently create a national environmental strategy that embraces scientific evidence and accepts the reality of human-caused climate change, champions mandatory international agreements to keep the Earth’s atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations below the level that would increase global temperatures by 2 degrees Celsius, sets firm annual targets for Canada’s fair share of emission reductions, takes appropriate action to ensure they are met and publishes independently-validated annual progress reports;
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this strategy be comprehensive and developed in consultation with all levels of government and other stakeholders and place a realistic and fair price on carbon while supporting regulatory and innovative approaches to sustainable development;
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that these strategies be evidence-based and support the investments needed to make them economically advantageous to implement;
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that these strategies include investment in research and development into ways to reduce costs of green energy technologies.
Take that, loon pond.
