President Trump doesn't beleive the climate change arguments; Premier Ford doesn't buy into the need for a carbon tax; Canadian Minister of the Environment says changes are being made while the United Nations tells us we have 11 years left to get it right.

News 100 greenBy Staff

December 30th, 2018

BURLINGTON, ON

 

In a media release from Queen’s Park the Ministry of the |Environment said: “Ontario’s Government for the People is gaining support across Canada in its fight against the federal government’s unconstitutional carbon tax. In addition to the Province of Saskatchewan, the Province of New Brunswick has now also joined Ontario’s challenge to the federal government’s Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act, which is an unconstitutional, disguised tax.

“The federal carbon tax will eliminate jobs and make life more difficult for families, seniors and everyone who works hard to get ahead in Ontario and across our country,” said Premier Doug Ford. “We are on the front lines of this fight because the costs for people and communities are simply unacceptable, whether in Ontario, in Saskatchewan, in New Brunswick or everywhere people are bracing for this new tax.”

Ford and Mulroney

Ontario now has a government that doesn’t see environmental issues the way the federal government does.

“Canadians across the country are calling on the federal government to eliminate the unconstitutional carbon tax and let the provinces decide how best to regulate greenhouse gas emissions.

“Ontario has already intervened in the reference case Saskatchewan has launched to its Court of Appeal.
“We are thankful for the support of Premier Ford and Premier Higgs, and the people of Ontario and New Brunswick, for intervening in our case against this unconstitutional and harmful federally imposed carbon tax,” said Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe. “Premier Ford and Minister Mulroney have shown great leadership in introducing a constitutional challenge against this job killing carbon tax, and Saskatchewan is proud to stand with the people of Ontario in this fight. The federal government should respect the court process by delaying the imposition of this harmful and job-killing tax until the courts have rendered a final decision.”

New Brunswick has intervened in the reference case in Saskatchewan as well and has now joined Ontario’s challenge.

“The Province of New Brunswick is on track to meet and exceed carbon emission reduction targets by 2030. We believe the federal government’s carbon tax unfairly targets our business and is too heavy a financial burden for ordinary New Brunswickers and Canadians alike,” said New Brunswick Premier Blaine Higgs. “That is why we have made good on our promise to join Saskatchewan and Ontario in court to fight a federally imposed carbon tax.”

“While our plan sets out a clear path as to how Ontario will achieve our share of the Paris targets, the federal government demonstrated yesterday that they do not.

trudeau-carbon-tax-20181023

There is a fundamental difference between what the province of Ontario wants to do on managing the amount of carbon in the environment and what the federal government wants to see done.

“Ontario is doing its share to address climate change and reduce greenhouse gas emissions; our families, workers and businesses have already made significant sacrifices to get here, and there is no justification to punish them further with a carbon tax,” said Rod Phillips, Minister of the Environment, Conservation and Parks. “With our environment plan, Ontario will continue to protect the environment while respecting taxpayers.”

The federal Minister of the Environment took a different tack saying: “Today demonstrates that multi-lateralism works to tackle a clear global problem—climate change. Three years ago almost to the day, some 200 countries came together to land an ambitious Paris Agreement. Over the last few weeks, the world gathered once again in Katowice, Poland, for the 24th Conference of the Parties (COP24) where our team worked hard throughout the negotiations to find common ground between developed and developing countries.

“I am pleased countries around the world came together to agree to rules for transparently reporting how all countries are fulfilling their commitments to reduce emissions and tackle climate change. To increase our ambition for climate action, we need clear and transparent rules.

“Canada also played a leading role in laying the groundwork for a global carbon market, to help mobilize the billions of dollars of investments needed to tackle climate change. We were pleased with the outcome although more work remains over the next year to finalize the guidelines for international trading. Recognizing the global momentum on pricing pollution, Canada took part in the Carbon Pricing Leadership Coalition, encouraging all countries around the world to use the most cost-effective tool to reduce emissions.

McKenna Poland

Catherine McKenna, lower left, at the UN Conference on Climate Change in Poland

“At COP24, Canada and the United Kingdom celebrated the first anniversary of the Powering Past Coal Alliance—founded by both countries—which now has 80 members including Israel, Scotland, Senegal, Melbourne and Sydney, and ScottishPower. We also pledged $275 million to the World Bank to help more countries around the world power past coal and move toward clean and renewable energy. We know that to achieve the Paris Agreement targets, every country needs to phase out coal and ensure a Just Transition for workers and communities. People must be at the centre of climate policies.

“Canada helped advance the work of the Local Communities and Indigenous Peoples Platform, with Indigenous representatives from Canada and around the world. To further this work, we will be supporting an Indigenous representative in the UN Climate Change secretariat.

“By bringing together not only governments, but also stakeholders, organizations, businesses, Indigenous partners, and civil society, COP24 demonstrated the world’s shared commitment to fight climate change. As we move toward a more sustainable economy in our common fight against climate change, we can ensure good jobs and healthy, resilient communities for our people.”

Climate change demonstrations

We will need more than demonstrations to bring about the changes in behavior that are needed.

Prior to the opening of the COP24 conference the United Nations issued one of the starkest warnings yet of the catastrophic threat posed by climate change, nations gathered in Poland on Sunday to chart a way for mankind to avert runaway global warming.

The COP24 climate summit comes at a crucial juncture in the battle to rein in the effects of our heating planet.

The smaller, poorer nations that will bare the devastating brunt of climate change are pushing for richer states to make good on the promises they made in the 2015 Paris agreement.

Three years ago countries committed to limit global temperature rises to well below two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit), and to the safer cap of 1.5C if at all possible.

1.5 to 2c

Getting from 1.5 to 2 degrees centigrade

But with only a single degree Celsius of warming so far, the world has already seen a crescendo of deadly wildfires, heatwaves and hurricanes made more destructive by rising seas.

UN General Assembly president Maria Espinosa told AFP that mankind was “in danger of disappearing” if climate change was allowed to progress at its current rate.

“We need to act urgently, and with audacity. Be ambitious, but also responsible for the future generations,” she added.

In a rare intervention, presidents of previous UN climate summits issued a joint statement as the talks got under way, calling on states to take “decisive action… to tackle these urgent threats”.

“The impacts of climate change are increasingly hard to ignore,” said the statement, a copy of which was obtained by AFP. “We require deep transformations of our economies and societies.”

At the COP24 climate talks, nations must agree to a rule book palatable to all 183 states who have ratified the Paris deal.

The road to a final rule book is far from smooth: the dust is still settling from US President Donald Trump’s decision to ditch the Paris accord.

G20 leaders on Saturday wrapped up their summit by declaring the Paris Agreement “irreversible”.

But it said the United States “reiterates its decision to withdraw” from the landmark accord.

The UN negotiations got off to a chaotic start in the Polish mining city of Katowice Sunday, with the opening session delayed nearly three hours by a series of last-ditch submissions.

A string of major climate reports have cast doubt over the entire process, suggesting the Paris goals fall well short of what is needed.

Data doesn’t lie

Just last week, the UN’s environment programme said the voluntary national contributions agreed in Paris would have to triple if the world was to cap global warming below 2C.

For 1.5C, they must increase fivefold.

While the data are clear, a global political consensus over how to tackle climate change remains elusive.

“Katowice may show us if there will be any domino effect” following the US withdrawal, said Laurence Tubiana, CEO of the European Climate Foundation and a main architect of the Paris deal.

Brazil’s strongman president-elect Jair Bolsonaro, for one, has promised to follow the American lead during his campaign.

Many countries are already dealing with the droughts, higher seas and catastrophic storms climate change is exacerbating.

“A failure to act now risks pushing us beyond a point of no return with catastrophic consequences for life as we know it,” said Amjad Abdulla, chief negotiator for the Alliance of Small Island States, of the UN talks.

A key issue up for debate is how the fight against climate change is funded, with developed and developing nations still world’s apart in their demands.

no time to waste -belgium-climate-demonstration

The world has to get this right in the next decade.

Poorer nations argue that rich countries, which are responsible for the vast majority of historic carbon emissions, must help others to fund climate action.

“Developed nations led by the US will want to ignore their historic responsibilities and will say the world has changed,” said Meena Ramam, from the Third World Network advocacy group.  “The question really is: how do you ensure that ambitious actions are done in an equitable way?”

If the world doesn’t get this right in the next decade – future generations are going to have to live in a world regularly racked by weather the likes of which we are only beginning to see.

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6 comments to President Trump doesn’t believe the climate change arguments; Premier Ford doesn’t buy into the need for a carbon tax; Canadian Minister of the Environment says changes are being made while the United Nations tells us we have 11 years left to get it right.

  • Carol Victor

    Hit me where it hurts and I might really care about climate change…I am happy to pay my share to protect our future generation. Bring it on Justin Trudeau!

  • Susan L.

    Right wing governments in Canada can’t say they don’t believe climate change was caused by human activity so they now say it’s going to kill jobs and cost people too much money.

    Just because a person voted for a Conservative Government doesn’t mean they believe we should do nothing about climate change. In Ontario, I believe Doug Ford was voted in mainly to to get rid of Kathleen Wynne, not to fight carbon tax. It may be a big mistake for Doug Ford’s future aspirations, to fight the new carbon tax.

    It looks like the next federal election will be fought mainly on the new carbon tax. If that happens, Trudeau will remain our Prime Minister.

    • Hans

      Re: …”Doug Ford was voted in mainly to to get rid of Kathleen Wynne…” – that’s the way I see it too.

  • joe gaetan

    You can shame Ford all you want, but if we don’t get this right as a nation, here is what will happen (see link). I have little faith in the current federal governments ability to do get it right. Speaking as a person, who has taken concrete steps to significantly reduce my carbon footprint I need to see more than a, “lets tax it and we will return the money to you, vote getting scheme”.
    https://www.centreforpublicimpact.org/case-study/carbon-tax-australia/

  • Steve D

    By all means Canada (a tiny contributor to carbon) and its taxpayers should fall on its sword while the largest polluters on the planet (China india) carry on building lots of new coal plants and basically ignoring everyone else. Gotta love China, they cancel a couple small plants, of the many, planned gigantic coal plants, and try and sell it like they’re being green. Sad.

    • D Walker

      Hi Steve,
      That’s not entirely true. We do business over in China and there have been major crack-downs on factories over there who fail to reduce their pollution or meet new standards. We hear this from our contact over there and also notice it in the change in price and suppliers for stainless steel goods.

      I agree with you that they need to do more, but to say that they’re doing very little isn’t totally true either.

      I think it’s important to keep in mind that a lot of the industries over in China and Asia arose out of a desire for cheaper goods over here, as well as multi-national corporations who wanted to build factories in countries with little to no environmental regulation or oversight. The question comes down to “cui bono?” – who benefits?

      As an aside comment for this whole article, I don’t believe that Andrew Scheer has any solutions for the majority of problems facing Canadians. He is happy to point his finger, but scared to state an actual idea.