Peter Kent, the Wizard of Dodge

In a staggering display of nonchalance, Environment Minister Peter Kent appeared before the Environment Committee last week to shrug off his government’s failure to make any real progress on reducing Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions.

“Our actions, combined with provincial, territorial and business efforts, are projected to bring Canada halfway to achieving our Copenhagen target of a 17 per cent reduction from 2005 levels by 2020, and moving forward we’re working towards achieving additional reductions from other sectors of the economy, focusing now on the oil and gas sector,” he said.

Frankly, the only thing “moving forward” for Conservatives is the clock, and it’s telling us time is running out.

This blandly delivered admission of utter failure is striking. It is a complete contradiction of repeated assertions that this government has a “plan” to meet its own, twice-weakened target.

In December 2011, Kent proudly asserted in Question Period, that “our government has a plan, a very good plan, to meet our target of reducing greenhouse gases by 17 per cent from 2005 base levels by 2020.”

So far, provincial action, a recession, and a change in international greenhouse gas accounting rules have been the biggest contributors to the emissions reductions for which the Harper government is claiming credit, which makes it a pretty bizarre “plan”. In fact, the plan — Let’s just let others do the work, hope the economy tanks, and that we’ll get credit for a new loophole — isn’t really a plan at all.

The biggest problem this government has is understanding that their biggest problem isn’t the perception that they’re not doing enough on the environment, it’s the fact that they’re not doing enough on the environment.

Their failure to get the message that environmental protection entails more than a public relations dodge will hurt Canada’s economy and our credibility for a long time to come. Both the EU Fuel Quality Directive and the approval of the Keystone XL pipeline are hung up on this government’s irresponsible lack of regulation for the oil and gas sector.

In reaction to a revitalized commitment to address climate change south of the border — and pointed remarks by a U.S. ambassador — this government launched a damage control campaign that was painful to watch — rolling out dubious, sometimes recycled press releases and statements.

In less than two weeks, we had three announcements of funding for clean technology, much of which concerned farm equipment (February 15); a hastily released Environment Canada report showing a drop in some key air pollutants (February 15); an early release of the annual report on obligations under the Federal Sustainable Development Act (February 15); a condescending message to Washington that Canada is “ahead” of the U.S. in regulating coal power emissions (John Baird, February 17); a re-announcement (for the fourth time) that greenhouse gas emissions regulations for heavy duty vehicles would be aligned with those of the U.S. (February 25); and Joe Oliver’s trip to Washington.

Insisting you are doing the right thing with massive lobbying efforts, self-congratulatory reports, re-announcements and glitzy ads won’t be enough. You have to actually do the right thing.

The gig’s up. Like Dorothy and Toto, the world has taken off its emerald glasses and is peering behind the curtain. All we see is a man with no magical powers and no plan.

Original Article
Source: ipolitics.ca
Author: Megan Leslie