Canada in hot water over global warming

When the federal government offered up little more than hot air this spring with its proposed plan to reduce Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions, Ecojustice took an extraordinary step; we launched the first ever lawsuit over Canada’s abandonment of the Kyoto Protocol.

This landmark case was launched on behalf of Friends of the Earth Canada, a group that felt it had to go to court as a last resort to hold the government accountable for breaking its binding legal commitments.

Five years ago, Canada confirmed that it was on board with the Kyoto target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions to 2,815 Megatonnes for the period between 2008 and 2012.

Instead, April saw the federal government unveil its “Turning the Corner” initiative, which advocated much less stringent greenhouse gas reductions that would result in emissions of 3,800 Megatonnes of greenhouse gases during the Kyoto period.

Thus, if Canada goes along with the government proposal, we won’t come close to achieving the original targets as laid out by Kyoto until at least 2025 – more than a decade late.

In a surprise move, near the end of the last session of Parliament, a Liberal private member’s bill aimed at ensuring Canada respected its Kyoto commitment became law.

The new Act forces the government to prepare a Kyoto-compliant plan to tackle greenhouse gas emissions by the end of August 2007 and publish regulations by the end of the year.

This new development has definitely cranked up the heat on government. Meanwhile, our client is waiting to see whether the government’s new plan meets the ultimate goal: compliance with the targets under the Kyoto Protocol. If not, the government may soon be back in court.