Hey, China, what about Kyoto?
ridenrain @ Tue Jan 23, 2007 8:22 am
$1:
EDITORIAL: Hey, China, what about Kyoto?
Since Canada’s Conservative government has now converted to the belief that global warming is a serious problem, we were just wondering.
Did either Finance Minister Jim Flaherty or Trade Minister David Emerson raise this vital issue with the Chinese while discussing more investment and (we’re told) China’s dismal human rights record, during their official visit there?
Given that China’s plans to build 562 new coal-fired energy plants over the next few years will more than wipe out any reductions in global carbon dioxide emissions, even if every other signatory to the Kyoto accord, including Canada, meets its 2012 emission targets, did they express any concerns?
Prime Minister Stephen Harper has already said Canada will miss its Kyoto target by 50%, mainly because the previous Liberal government, despite ratifying Kyoto, did nothing to implement it and was 35% behind its emission targets when it lost power.
That said, given the Conservative government’s new-found enthusiasm for all things green, we’re surprised global warming hasn’t been front-and-centre in China, given how seriously Harper and new Environment Minister John Baird say they now take the issue and the impending environmental disaster humanity faces because of it.
Surely, then, they know that China, the world’s second-largest greenhouse gas emitter, is expected to take the lead from the U.S. in that dubious honour by 2025.
And that while the U.S. has thus far refused to ratify Kyoto and therefore has no emission targets, China is exempt from targets because, like India, another huge emitter of greenhouse gases, it is classified as a developing nation.
All of which raises the issue of why the Conservatives continue to pay lip service to a treaty whose terms we are failing to abide by, while spending hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars trying to convince Canadians that they have suddenly gone green.
Of course, we question the sanity of the previous Liberal government, which obviously had no idea of what it was doing when it signed and ratified Kyoto, no idea of how to meet its emission targets and no regard for how onerous they were.
But we expect such nonsense from the Liberals.
Since Canada’s Conservative government has now converted to the belief that global warming is a serious problem, we were just wondering.
Did either Finance Minister Jim Flaherty or Trade Minister David Emerson raise this vital issue with the Chinese while discussing more investment and (we’re told) China’s dismal human rights record, during their official visit there?
Given that China’s plans to build 562 new coal-fired energy plants over the next few years will more than wipe out any reductions in global carbon dioxide emissions, even if every other signatory to the Kyoto accord, including Canada, meets its 2012 emission targets, did they express any concerns?
Prime Minister Stephen Harper has already said Canada will miss its Kyoto target by 50%, mainly because the previous Liberal government, despite ratifying Kyoto, did nothing to implement it and was 35% behind its emission targets when it lost power.
That said, given the Conservative government’s new-found enthusiasm for all things green, we’re surprised global warming hasn’t been front-and-centre in China, given how seriously Harper and new Environment Minister John Baird say they now take the issue and the impending environmental disaster humanity faces because of it.
Surely, then, they know that China, the world’s second-largest greenhouse gas emitter, is expected to take the lead from the U.S. in that dubious honour by 2025.
And that while the U.S. has thus far refused to ratify Kyoto and therefore has no emission targets, China is exempt from targets because, like India, another huge emitter of greenhouse gases, it is classified as a developing nation.
All of which raises the issue of why the Conservatives continue to pay lip service to a treaty whose terms we are failing to abide by, while spending hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars trying to convince Canadians that they have suddenly gone green.
Of course, we question the sanity of the previous Liberal government, which obviously had no idea of what it was doing when it signed and ratified Kyoto, no idea of how to meet its emission targets and no regard for how onerous they were.
But we expect such nonsense from the Liberals.
ridenrain @ Tue Jan 23, 2007 8:32 am
Avro Avro:
Yeah and what about the human rights issues that Harper raised and had the two ministers apologize for.
Do you have proof of an apology?
Stop mixing that bleach with drain cleaners.
