Harper goes on green offensive; Plays up Canada’s protection of Arctic
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Prime Minister Stephen Harper began his mission to overhaul Canada’s tattered environmental image in Europe yesterday by playing up Canada’s protection of the Arctic.
In a 10-minute speech to a UN environment conference, Harper said Canada was the first industrialized country to ratify a biodiversity treaty in 1992 and made protection of the Arctic environment one of his priorities.
“Canada is working hard to build and expand its network of protected areas,” Harper said.
“To date, 10 per cent of Canada’s territory — an area larger than France and Germany combined — and three million hectares of ocean are protected by federal, provincial and territorial governments.”
The prime minister added his government has vowed to get past “the empty rhetoric” and to take concrete action to require Canadian industry to make real reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.
Harper will speak to the Canada-United Kingdom Chamber of Commerce in London today to defend his strategy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
The speeches and bilateral meetings with the leaders of France, the U.K., Germany and Italy are particularly important in advance of July’s G8 summit in Japan.
In Bonn, environmental groups such as Greenpeace put Canada on a list of countries blocking progress on several fronts, including greenhouse gas reductions, biofuels, biodiversity in forestry and farming, resource revenue distribution and the rights of aboriginal people.
According to CBDAlliance, an umbrella group of organizations involved in protecting biodiversity, Canada leads only in the protection of marine areas.
William Jackson, deputy director-general of the International Union for Conservation of Nature, says Canada has taken some very hard line positions.
“When countries speak out their viewpoints, they can be seen by others as being critical,” Johnson said.
“I don’t see anything wrong with being critical as long as it doesn’t result in decisions not being made. In my observations, I have not seen Canada criticizing things to the point that decisions are not being made.”
Filed by Anita Li under The Environment, Climate Change