Harper To Ape Chimp, Dump Kyoto In Favor Of GHG "Intensity" Plan

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OTTAWA, VANCOUVER -- Prime Minister Stephen Harper said yesterday that greenhouse-gas targets in the federal government's new environmental policy will be "intensity-based," a system that effectively scuttles Canada's commitments under the Kyoto Protocol. Mr. Harper said his government will introduce next week its Clean Air Act, legislation that will trigger at least a year of talks with industry and the provinces to set mandatory reduction targets for pollution and greenhouse gases.

But in responding to questions in Vancouver, Mr. Harper uttered a phrase that had the opposition fuming. "We will produce intensity-based targets over the short range and the long term and they will cover a range of emissions, not just carbon dioxide, but nitrous oxide, sulphur oxide, sulphur dioxide; so it will be a comprehensive plan," the Prime Minister said. It marked the first time the Harper government has said its plan to address global warming would be "intensity-based." That means industries would have to reduce emissions per unit of production, such as per barrel of oil.

Lowering emissions per unit, however, does not mean that Canada's total output of greenhouse gases will decline. If, for example, there is an expansion in the oil sands, total levels of emissions would increase even if per-unit emissions decrease. Such an approach runs contrary to Canada's commitments under Kyoto, which calls for the country's total output of greenhouse gases to decline. Canada has signed on to the accord for its first phase, which ends in 2012, but there are no penalties if countries do not meet its targets.

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Liberal environment critic John Godfrey, who accused Mr. Harper yesterday of using "ominous weasel words," said the Liberal plan was better because it also called for forced reductions of 45 megatonnes of greenhouse gases for Canada's industrial sector as a whole. "What we need are absolute targets, not ones based on energy intensity. Those are words that are used by George Bush and the Republicans to describe what they want," Mr. Godfrey said. New Democratic Party Leader Jack Layton expressed similar concerns yesterday and said Mr. Harper shows an unwillingness to tackle the rising emissions from Alberta's oil sands. "My guess is they'll be celebrating in the big oil companies' boardrooms right now," he said in an interview with CTV.

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http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20061011.TORIESGREEN11/TPStory/National