COPENHAGEN - Saying Canada is “very comfortable” with a sketchy climate-change deal eked out in Copenhagen Friday, Prime Minister Stephen Harper nonetheless insisted his government will take no steps to cut greenhouse gas emissions until the United States acts.
“What will be most critical for Canada in terms of filling out the details of our regulatory framework will be the regulatory framework being developed in the United States,” he said. “The nature of the Canadian economy and the nature of our integrated energy markets is such that Canada and the United States need to be closely harmonized on this.
“If the Americans don’t act, it will severely limit our ability to act. But if Americans do act, it is absolutely essential that we act in concert with them.”
At a press conference late Friday night in the Danish capital, the prime minister went out of his way to stress his government is making a “big departure” from the approach of the previous Liberal regime, which approved emissions cuts under the Kyoto protocol independently of what the United States did.
“Our efforts will be closely co-ordinated with those in the United States,” he said.
It was the U.S. that, after a long, fitful day of negotiations, announced Friday’s international agreement - through which individual countries will be asked to list their greenhouse-gas emissions targets and explain how they plan to achieve them.
The so-called Copenhagen Accord, coming at the end of a two-week conference involving 193 counties, is non-binding, however. A final, legally binding text could take many months.
The accord is short on details, though it promises funds to help poorer nations grapple with climate change. That is hinged on allowing the international community access to their books ¬ an amendment the U.S. called a “deal breaker” if it wasn't met.
Under the agreement, Canada will make “absolute reductions moving forward,” Harper said, but stressed the agreement allows “a wide degree of flexibility for all countries to set their own targets.”
Harper challenged the view of his critics that Canada has not played a "relevant" role at the talks, saying that four years ago he insisted all countries that were major greenhouse gas emitters be included in any climate change accord. At the time, that principle was thought to be “heresy,” said Harper, but in fact it was the basis of yesterday¹s accord.
Secondly, he said, the Conservative government has always insisted the targets be “realistic ... they could not be pulled out of thin air, just thrown out to impress environmental NGOs. They have to be realistic targets that countries are prepared to live with and prepared to co-ordinate with the demands of their economy.”
While the United States hammered out the agreement in a meeting with other major powers which Canada did not attend, he said the U.S. and “a group of close allies” had represented Canadian views ably.
“If every leader wants to be in every discussion, you can’t get anywhere.”
He also said that while the Alberta oil sands must be part of the solution, they represent only about 4% of Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions.
“By no means can Canada reach its target only through dealing with the oil sands,” he said, but added: “This is an agreement Canada is very comfortable with.”
