Bali is wrapping up, and Canada is still working overtime to strong-arm developing nations into adopting CO2 emission targets.
Reuters is reporting that 150 developing countries, including China and India, are facing intense pressure from industrialized nations, including threats of trade sanctions, to curb their greenhouse gas emissions.
This even while Canada steadfastly refuses to meet emission targets it agreed to by signing the Kyoto Protocol.
Throughout the Bali talks, Harper’s “New Government” has been obstructionist, opposing hard caps in favour of an approach that panders to rampant industrial development.
As a result, the whole affair, aimed at laying the groundwork for a post-Kyoto deal, is on the verge of collapse.
Harper’s team Canada bears much of the blame.
Harper swaggered into office with an industrial agenda.
He’s openly contemptuous of the climate-change file.
He bullied the federal scientists into silence on climate change, threatening to fire any civil servant who publicly voiced opinions contrary to the government’s agenda.
He’s all but pulled Canada out of Kyoto.
He recently killed progress on hard CO2 emission targets at a Commonwealth conference.
And coming into Bali, he effectively curbed any dissenting voices, be they opposition politicians or Kyoto sympathizers, from attending the talks.
Instead, Environment Minister John Baird took a business delegation.
And throughout the conference, Harper’s team has positioned Canada as the CO2-emission enforcer, shifting the focus from Washington, the sole holdout on the Kyoto file. The US was expected to come under intense pressure at Bali. Instead, through Canada’s work, it’s the non-industrialized countries that are feeling the heat.
And at the talks, Harper has pushed for a deal that balanced industrial needs with the environment.
That is, he is pushing for business as usual.
This comes alongside news the polar ice cap has melted at an unprecedented rate.
The Arctic Ocean is now expected to be free of ice for three months in the summer of 2013, decades ahead of predictions made just last year.
This year, the ocean’s average temperature was five degrees Celsius warmer than ever before, which is unprecedented.
But Harper’s show at Bali has provided Canadians with a clear choice.
They can, for the sake of the planet, reject Harper’s no-holds-barred economic development.
Or they can support him, accepting the proverbial brown envelope of cash. (RM)