| Conservative climate change plan criticized
Environmentalists are furious about the federal government’s newly announced plan to deal with climate change.
The Conservatives have promised to reduce total greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) to 20 per cent below 2006 levels by 2020. Under the Kyoto Protocol, Canada is required to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) by six per cent below 1990 levels by 2012. The Conservatives have also announced new intensity-based greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction targets for industry. Intensity-based greenhouse gas emission (GHG) reductions are reductions per unit of production so as the economy grows emissions could continue to increase. Industry will be required to reduce the intensity of its emissions by 18 per cent between 2007 and 2010 and then by an additional two per cent per year after 2010.
Environmentalist David Suzuki called the plan a "sham, and a complete abdication of our international commitments" in a media release. "By abandoning Kyoto, Prime Minister Harper is dragging Canada’s name through the mud," said Suzuki. "He’s thumbing his nose at all the countries that are well on their way to meeting their targets and at the majority of Canadians who want to do the right thing."
Clare Demerse, climate change policy analyst at the Pembina Institute, an environmental think-tank, says the plan will mean Canada will have GHG emissions that are 11 per cent above our Kyoto targets in 2020.
"Canada would be on track to meet Kyoto by about 2025," says Demerse. "It’s completely inadequate compared to what the science shows, what everyone is telling us in terms of how urgent this is and it’s out of step with other countries. This will put us very far behind in terms of dealing with climate change."
The federal government has also announced it will ban inefficient incandescent light bulbs by 2012. Demerse says the move is a step in the right direction, but she says lighting accounts for less than two per cent of the country’s GHG emissions. Meanwhile, industry produces close to 50 per cent of the country’s overall emissions.
Demerse is also concerned about the fact that new industrial facilities will get a three-year grace period before they have to start meeting targets and some projects can apply for "special consideration" to be exempted from emissions reductions.
"It’s a real failure of leadership. We’ve got a very weak overall target, and within that the industrial target is even weaker because it’s intensity-based and because it’s got all kinds of significant loopholes," says Demerse.
Affordable housing conference to be held
The Canadian Housing and Renewal Association, a national non-profit organization that lobbies for adequate, affordable housing, is hosting its annual conference in Calgary from May 9 to 12.
The conference will include workshops on the business case for affordable housing, non-traditional partnerships, affordable housing in a booming economy, how to revitalize neighbourhoods and 10-year plans to eliminate homelessness.
Philip Mangano, executive director of the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness, which is responsible for creating the U.S. strategy to eliminate homelessness in 10 years, will speak at the conference. Experts on homelessness experts from New Zealand and Zimbabwe will also speak.
For more information on the conference go to www.chra-achru.ca.
MARIJUANA MARCHERS AGAINST STIGMA
Calgary’s third Global Marijuana March takes place on May 5 at 2 p.m. in front of city hall. The event will coincide with marches in over 200 other cities around the world where activists are pushing for an end to pot prohibition.
"The purpose of the march is to get the information out there about cannabis," says organizer Keith Fagan, adding he hopes to eliminate the "stigma" around the drug. "It’s not a cannabis smokeout. We don’t promote that and we ask people not to provoke the police," he says.
Around 300 people showed up at last year’s march in Calgary. |
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