Canada missing green

Canada missing green
The Toronto Sun
Fri 27 Jun 2008 Page: 12 Section: News Byline: BY VIVIAN SONG, SUN MEDIA

Canada fails to recognize that there's money to be made in developing a green economy, some of Canada's brightest scientists heard yesterday at a 20-year conference reunion.

"There is profit to be made in developing technology to fight pollution," said Howard Ferguson, the original chairman of the historic climate Our Changing Atmosphere: Implications for Global Security conference in 1988.


About a dozen of some of Canada's eminent scientific minds -- Nobel Prize winners among them -- shared ideas and reunited yesterday to mark the 20th anniversary of the conference in Canada and lambast the world's inaction.

Toronto brought 400 scientists and policy-makers from 46 countries to the 1988 conference, sponsored by the United Nations Environment Programme and the World Meteorological Organization.

But 20 years after sounding the alarm, little has changed, they said.

"We missed two decades of opportunities to change course," said Jim MacNeill, secretary general of the World Commission on Environment and Development.

The only way to produce tangible reductions, scientists said, is to implement a carbon tax, a cap and trade system, and abandon the notion of pitting environmental interests against economic gain.

"I think the key lies in fossil fuel prices that carry the full burden of costs imposed on the environment and society," MacNeill said. "The markets are doing that now, but you can't trust the markets."

Sweden's environmental record and tax reform was often cited yesterday as a model. A carbon tax was introduced in 1991 and the country is consistently one of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development's (OECD) top environmental performers.

This year, German environmental group Germanwatch named Sweden the most planet-friendly country for the second time. From 1990 to 2006, Sweden cut its carbon emissions by 9% -- exceeding its Kyoto targets -- and enjoyed economic growth.

"Canada's record on climate action is one of absolute shame and total disgrace," MacNeill said.

At one time a global leader, Canada has fallen to the bottom of the OECD countries for environmental performance, launching the "biggest man-made permanent path to climate destruction" with the tar sands, MacNeill added.

"Time is the scarcest resource we have."

© 2008 Sun Media Corporation. All rights reserved.


Camille Labchuk
Press Secretary / Attachée de presse
Green Party of Canada / Parti Vert du Canada
613-562-4916 ext. 244
http://www.greenparty.ca/ / http://www.partivert.ca/