P.J. Partington, a policy analyst with the Pembina Institute’s climate change program, made the following statement in response to the release of Environment Canada’s 2012 emissions trends report:
“The Harper government continues to overstate the federal government’s accomplishments on climate change while understating the scale of challenges remaining.
“After six years in power, the federal government’s policies still leave a huge gap between where Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions are headed and the government’s promise to reduce climate pollution. Continuing to rely solely on sector-by-sector regulations will be too slow and too inflexible to meaningfully close that gap in the next eight years.
“The progress reflected in this year’s emissions trends report is largely the result of updated baselines and accounting rules for greenhouse gas pollution, as well as the considerable action some provinces are taking to reduce their emissions. The federal government ought to build on these provincial success stories to address the challenges ahead, rather than taking credit for a drop in emissions that has little to do with federal policy.”
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Contact:
P.J. Partington (Toronto)
Climate policy analyst
613-859-2220
Julia Kilpatrick (Ottawa)
Communications manager
403-953-0350
Background:
Reality Check: The state of climate progress in Canada — Report by the National Roundtable on the Environment and the Economy, released June 2012
Meeting Canada’s 2020 Climate Change Commitments — Chapter 2 in the 2012 Spring Report of the Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development, released May 2012
“Federal budget strips accountability and transparency from climate change policy” — Pembina Institute blog, published April 2012