This article appeared
in Policy Options
in November 2015.
The Paris climate summit
Canada has consistently failed to deliver, but it’s not too late
for us to make a major contribution at the climate summit in Paris.
The other day I heard an environmental advocate argue that Prime
Minister Justin Trudeau needed to make an ambitious commitment at the UN Paris
climate summit (COP 21) to atone for all the “climate fossil” awards won by our
previous prime minister. I’m not so sure.
Remember when newly elected President Barack Obama won the Nobel
Peace Prize? He hadn’t yet done anything. Apparently the Nobel committee
bestowed the award simply because he was not George W. Bush. In the same vein,
Trudeau will be welcomed because he is not Stephen Harper.
I am not saying, of course, that Trudeau should just go to Paris
and smile. But to make a real contribution, he will need to be brutally honest
about why UN negotiations have failed for over two decades and equally honest
about why Canada’s emission reduction efforts have also continuously failed.
