A new climate change performance index ranks Canada among the worst countries in the world on greenhouse gas emission trends and policy. Canada is listed in 54th place out of 57 countries. This is the third year in a row Canada has been slated among the worst in the world on climate change.
This deplorable performance comes as no surprise, given that the Harper government has no plan in place to act on its already weak greenhouse gas emissions reduction pledge of 17 per cent below 2005 levels by 2020 made in January 2010, following COP 15 in Copenhagen. Since that time, Harper’s government has continued to under-achieve and now has a part-time Environment Minister at best in John Baird.
At COP 16 recently in Mexico, Canada was again not constructive. Canada aligned itself with Japan and Russia calling for the end of Kyoto Protocol commitments, once that agreement expires in 2012.
The 2011 climate change performance index is compiled by the social research centre Germanwatch and Climate Action Network Europe. The index assesses countries that are responsible for 90 per cent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions and aims to put political and social pressure on countries to take action on climate change.
Brazil, Sweden, Norway, Germany and the United Kingdom have the best records on climate change. Conversely, Canada, Australia, Kazakhstan and Saudi Arabia are the world’s rogue nations when it comes to climate change action.
