13/04/2005 - The long-anticipated
Kyoto implementation plan announced by Canada’s
government today aims for success by expecting
something from everyone but not enough from
the major emitters of greenhouse gases, says
WWF.
“Environment Minister Stéphane Dion
has shown leadership in finally getting a
plan that adds up to Canada’s Kyoto obligations,
but this government has to switch gears and
get into implementation mode as soon as possible,”
says Julia Langer, Conservation Director of
WWF Canada (World Wildlife Fund Canada).
Financial support and incentives focused
on eliminating coal-fired electricity, improving
energy efficiency, and deploying renewable
energy sources can be deployed quickly, and
could make a huge dent in Canada’s emissions.
Burning coal is the single biggest source
of greenhouse gas pollution in the world,
and is consequently the focus of WWF’s PowerSwitch!
campaign that aims to move the power sector
off coal to clean, renewable energy.
The disappointingly modest emission-reduction
expectations from Canada’s major industrial
facilities, and the subsidies being offered
for reductions, stand in stark contrast to
the European’s more efficient, market-based
approach. “Hopefully the Canadian government
will strengthen its effort before the world
arrives in Montreal in November for the Kyoto
Protocol’s First Meeting of the Parties,”
says Jennifer Morgan, Director of WWF’s global
Climate Change Programme. “A more ambitious
and creative regime for major industries would
actually cut rather than simply slow their
emissions plus allow Canada to participate
in the Europe’s carbon trading market.”
WWF, the global conservation organization,
has worked for ratification and implementation
of the Kyoto Accord for a decade, including
playing a key role in convincing Russia to
sign on to the agreement. At the 11th Conference
of the Parties (CoP 11), which begins Canada’s
role as the Chair of the process, WWF will
press all countries to think beyond meeting
their current Kyoto obligations given evidence
that dangerous climate change will happen
without even more aggressive reductions than
are currently proposed.
Unless global average temperature stay well
below a 2 degree increase in comparison to
pre-industrial levels, the impacts on nature
include the future extinction of polar bears
according to WWF’s recently released 2 Degrees
Is Too Much!: Evidence and Implications of
Dangerous Climate Change in the Artic.
