New Plan?

When I first heard about the Conservative government’s plan to cut GHG emissions by 18 percent by 2020, I was actually quite impressed. It was astounding to see a party go from global warming denial to a real plan, especially when that plan seemed better than anything the Liberals had ever proposed.

But those were simply first impressions. As I started reading about this "new deal", I grew increasingly uneasy about the way the whole issue was being handled by the Conservatives. A few things made me especially mad, and have now convinced me once and for all that this government is simply not up to the task when it comes to the Environment.

The first problem is a purely practical one, which put back into question the actual validity of the plan, and which was raised by Globe and Mail columnist Jeffrey Simpson in this morning’s paper. Namely: carbon emissions don’t have a price.

Putting a price tag on carbon emissions is absolutely essential for a long term solution, because otherwise, the plan needs to rely on successive governments to enforce it, which is highly unlikely to happen once the environment hype dies down. It is also a key to integrating the environment into the economy, which should be one of the government's top priorities.

But to be frank, the Conservative government actually seems committed to doing just the opposite. This is because it's whole ideology and policy is based upon a natural opposition between the environment and the economy, an opposition which even in the short term, doesn’t necessarily exist. But by spreading that impression, it can hope to be able to get away with minimal reductions by simply invoking an economic slowdown as an excuse.

Anyway, I’ll finish by pointing out that Germany is now planning a 40 percent GHG reduction by 2015. You can choose to make excuses, but the truth of the matter is, this new plan doesn’t have much new in it, and it makes Canada look just as dismal on the world stage.