“I don’t think we should consider signing on to a deal that makes us virtually the sole country in the world that is going to take any action.” (Stephen Harper, Toronto Star, September 5, 2002)
“Kyoto does virtually nothing to deal with pollution and to deal with the quality of the air that we breathe. Let’s forget about this unworkable treaty.. Kyoto’s never going to be passed.” (Stephen Harper, Toronto Star, September 5, 2002)
“This may be a lot of fun for a few scientific and environmental elites in Ottawa, but ordinary Canadians from coast to coast will not put up with what this will do to their economy and lifestyle.” (Stephen Harper, Toronto Star, September 5, 2002)
“No, what I am supportive of is, frankly, not ratifying the Kyoto agreement and not implementing it.” (Stephen Harper, CTV News, September 6, 2002)
“[Gobal warming] is a scientific hypothesis and a controversial one.” (Stephen Harper, Toronto Star, September 5, 2002)
“Carbon dioxide is not a pollutant.” (Stephen Harper, Hansard, October 11, 2002)
“We cannot predict the weather tomorrow with absolute accuracy. We certainly cannot predict the climate 100 years from now… Models have been constructed that suggest there could well be a base line increase of about 2.5°C over 100 years. There is no particular knowledge at the moment whether that relationship has to do with natural or man-made carbon dioxide. Frankly, over the last few years we have failed to see the full rise in global temperatures that the models predict.” (Stephen Harper, Hansard, October 24, 2002)
“The relationship of carbon dioxide to global warming also involves complicated and complex science that is far from settled. It is a matter of significant debate.” (Stephen Harper, Hansard, October 24, 2002)
“[Kyoto] is designed to address the so-called ‘greenhouse gas’ phenomenon, the hypothesis that the increase of certain gases – not necessarily pollutants – contribute to a long-term global warming trend.” (Stephen Harper, Address at the Ottawa Leader’s Dinner, November 20, 2002)
“As economic policy the Kyoto Accord is a disaster. As environmental policy it is a fraud.” (Stephen Harper, Address at the Ottawa Leader’s Dinner, November 20, 2002)
..Canada’s implementation will not lead to global reductions of CO2. In fact the transfer of wealth, jobs and emissions to non-target countries virtually ensures that carbon dioxide emissions will increase under the Kyoto Protocol” (Stephen Harper, Address at the Ottawa Leader’s Dinner, November 20, 2002)
“My party’s position on the Kyoto Protocol is clear and has been for a long time. We will oppose ratification of the Kyoto Protocol and its targets. We will work with the provinces and others to discourage the implementation of those targets. And we will rescind the targets when we have the opportunity to do so.” (Stephen Harper, Ottawa Citizen, November 22, 2002)
“.there is no environmental benefit [to Kyoto] of any kind.” (Transcript of Stephen Harper interview on the Rafe Mair Show, CKNW Radio Vancouver, November 29, 2002)
“We think the deal itself [Kyoto] is simply bogus.” (Transcript of Stephen Harper interview on the Rafe Mair Show, CKNW Radio Vancouver, November 29, 2002)
“Carbon dioxide which is a naturally occurring gas vital to the life cycles of this planet. Smog is an entirely different issue is not covered by this treaty.” (Transcript of Stephen Harper interview on the Rafe Mair Show, CKNW Radio Vancouver, November 29, 2002)
“We can debate whether or not… CO2 does or does not contribute to global warming. I think the jury is out.” (Stephen Harper interview on the Rafe Mair Show, CKNW Radio Vancouver, November 29, 2002)
“I will not comment at any length about the science of this other than to say the science remains in flux and is controversial. This is not just about issues of global warming or how these gases contribute to global warming, but the very reality that there has been constant climate change in the earth’s history. We know this and quite frankly science knows very little about why over the epochs and the centuries those temperature changes have taken place in the first place.” (Stephen Harper, Hansard, December 9, 2002)
“The Kyoto protocol does not deal with critical environmental issues.” (Stephen Harper, Address on the Kyoto Accord, December 9, 2002)
“The accord does negatively impact every region of the country. So rather than talk up separation, it is important to build a coalition across the country to defeat Kyoto.” (Stephen Harper, Report Newsmagazine, December 16, 2002)
“We’re gearing up for the biggest struggle our party has faced since you entrusted me with the leadership. I’m talking about the “battle of Kyoto” — our campaign to block the job-killing, economy-destroying Kyoto Accord.
It would take more than one letter to explain what’s wrong with Kyoto, but here are a few facts about this so-called “Accord”:
- It’s based on tentative and contradictory scientific evidence about climate trends.
- It focuses on carbon dioxide, which is essential to life, rather than upon pollutants.
- Canada is the only country in the world required to make significant cuts in emissions. Third World countries are exempt, the Europeans get credit for shutting down inefficient Soviet-era industries, and no country in the Western hemisphere except Canada is signing.
- Implementing Kyoto will cripple the oil and gas industry, which is essential to the economies of Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia.
- As the effects trickle through other industries, workers and consumers everywhere in Canada will lose. THERE ARE NO CANADIAN WINNERS UNDER THE KYOTO ACCORD.
- The only winners will be countries such as Russia, India, and China, from which Canada will have to buy “emissions credits.” Kyoto is essentially a socialist scheme to suck money out of wealth-producing nations.
- On top of all this, Kyoto will not even reduce greenhouse gases. By encouraging transfer of industrial production to Third World countries where emissions standards are more relaxed, it will almost certainly increase emissions on a global scale
Jean Chrétien says he will introduce a resolution to ratify Kyoto into Parliament and get it passed before Christmas. We will do everything we can to stop him there, but he might get it passed with the help of the socialists in the NDP and the separatists in the BQ.
But the “battle of Kyoto” is just beginning. Ratification is merely symbolic; Kyoto will not take effect unless and until it is implemented by legislation. We will go to the wall to stop that legislation and at that point we will be on much stronger procedural ground than in trying to block a mere resolution.
The Reform Party defeated the Charlottetown Accord in an epic struggle in the fall of 1992. Now the Canadian Alliance is leading the battle against the Kyoto Accord!
But we can’t do it alone. It will take an army of Canadians to beat Kyoto, just as it did to beat Charlottetown.
We can’t stop Kyoto just in Parliament. We need your help at all levels. We need you to inform yourself about Kyoto, to discuss it with your friends and neighbours, and to write protest letters to newspapers and the government.
And, yes, we need your gifts of money. The “battle of Kyoto” is going to lead directly into the next election. We need your contribution of $500, or $250, or $100, or whatever you can afford, to help us drive the Liberals from power.
Yours truly,
Stephen Harper, MP
Leader of the Opposition
PS: The “battle of Kyoto” shows why the Canadian Alliance is so important to you and to Canada. All the other federal parties are supporting Kyoto (Liberals, NDP, BQ) or speaking out of both sides of their mouth (Tories). Only the Canadian Alliance is strong and fearless enough to block dangerous and destructive schemes like the Charlottetown Accord and the Kyoto Accord.(Stephen Harper, Letter to Canadian Reform Alliance Party supporters, 2002)
“This is just the beginning of the biggest black-hole boondoggle in Canadian history.” (Stephen Harper, National Post, August 13, 2003)
“The science is still evolving [with respect to climate change.]” (Stephen Harper, Toronto Star, June 10, 2004)
“Carbon dioxide does not cause or contribute to smog, and the Kyoto treaty would do nothing to reduce or prevent smog.” (Stephen Harper, Toronto Star, June 10, 2004).
“I think these are subjects where we know a lot less than some claim we know. Climate is always changing. My suspicion is that human activities have some impact upon that but I think the jury is out on a lot of the actual specific trends.” (Stephen Harper, Interview with Frontier Centre for Public Policy, May 18, 2004)
“I think these are subjects where we know a lot less than some claim we know. Climate is always changing. My suspicion is that human activities have some impact upon that but I think the jury is out on a lot of the actual specific trends.” (Stephen Harper, Interview with Frontier Centre for Public Policy, May 18, 2004)
“Redirect federal spending aimed at fulfilling the terms of the increasingly irrelevant Kyoto Protocol.” (Stephen Harper, Ottawa Citizen, June 8, 2005)
“It’ll be a lot harder for the Liberals to run their campaign of fear. In fact, they’ll have troubling explaining why it was that the [Prince Edward] Island didn’t actually sink into the Gulf of St. Lawrence after all.” (Stephen Harper, speech to the PEI PC Party, April 28, 2006)
“But Canadians have made it clear they want us to put one task ahead of all others: protecting and improving our environment.
Ladies and Gentlemen, the fundamental challenge of our time is to make real progress on environmental protection while preserving jobs and standards of living. Finding that balance will require sound science, rational debate and political will. Our government understands that global warming is a serious threat to the health and well-being of Canadians. The just-released report of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has sounded the alarm yet again. Rising levels of greenhouses gases in the atmosphere are projected to exacerbate climate changes that could be devastating for many parts of our planet. My children, your children and all children deserve to grow up in a world where they have clean air to breathe and clean water to drink. They deserve well-tended land that will sustain healthy crops and livestock. And they deserve large tracts of unspoiled wilderness, sanctuaries that not only preserve our precious flora and fauna, but also provide opportunities for increasingly urbanized human beings to connect with the natural world. But in order to bequeath this future to our children, we have to have a realistic plan, not just empty rhetoric. Our government supports a concerted global effort to deal with climate change – and such an effort must include the major emitters, including the United States and China. But we cannot ask others to act unless we are prepared to start at home, with real action on greenhouse gases and air pollution. After more than a decade of inaction on air quality and greenhouse gasses, Canada has one of the worst records in the developed world. The previous government committed to ambitious greenhouse gas targets, and then presided over a 27% increase. The result is increased smog in our cities and rising rates of asthma and other ailments. That is why our government is charting a dynamic new path. Our program to regulate air quality represents a radical departure from the missed opportunities of past years. In the weeks ahead, for the first time ever, Canada’s New Government will move to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from major industrial sectors. For the first time ever, we will also move to regulate air pollution from major industry sectors. For the first time ever, we will regulate the fuel efficiency of motor vehicles, beginning with the 2011 model year. And for the first time ever, we will set out enforceable regulatory targets for the short, medium and long term. The era of voluntary compliance is over.
In our environmental plan, Canadians will also see our new eco-energy programs that support energy efficiency and stimulate the production of renewable power. They will see regulations mandating greater use of ethanol and other green fuels. They will see measures to make energy efficient vehicles more affordable. They will see better protection from hazardous chemicals through our new Chemicals Management Plan. And they will see support for wilderness preservation initiatives such as B.C.’s Great Bear Rainforest conservation project. Budget 2006 allowed the banking of environmentally sensitive land tax free, and we will be following this in the next few weeks with major conservation initiatives that harness the private sector. In a nutshell, Canadians will enjoy a cleaner, greener and healthier country – a better Canada.” (Stephen Harper, 6 February 2007, Ottawa)
“In the interests of time, allow me to focus my remarks this afternoon on the fight against climate change, perhaps the biggest threat to confront the future of humanity today.
Canada may be a small contributor to global warming – our greenhouse gas emissions represent just 2% of the earth’s total – but we owe it to future generations to do whatever we can to address this world problem. And Canadians, blessed as we are, should make a substantial contribution to confronting this challenge. At this Summit, for the first time ever, Canada will arrive at a G-8 meeting with a real and realistic action plan on climate change. Normally, Canada is a country that prides itself on living up to its international obligations and commitments. But frankly, up to now, our country has been engaged in a lot of “talking the talk” but not “walking the walk” when it has come to greenhouse gases. A decade ago our predecessors in government committed our country to the Kyoto protocol. They said Canada would reduce its emissions to 6% below 1990 levels beginning in 2008. And then they did practically nothing to achieve this goal. Instead, they maintained policies that pushed emissions in the other direction. In fact, when we came to office last year, Canada’s emissions were 33% above the target and rising. Which meant, with only months before the targets kicked in, it had become impossible to meet the Kyoto commitment without crippling our economy. So we vowed to develop a real plan – with real, absolute, mandatory reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.
A plan that’s practical, affordable and achievable. A plan that’s balanced and market-driven. A plan that deals with our growing economy and population.But also a plan that achieves real, absolute, mandatory reductions in greenhouse gases and positions Canada as a leader in fighting climate change. There are elements of our plan that could work not just for Canada, but for many countries in the world – including some of the large emitters that did not accept targets under the Kyoto protocol. After all, the countries that did accept targets under Kyoto account for less than 30% of global emissions. The outsiders included major, growing emitters like China, India and the United States.
Obviously, if we really want to stop climate change, all the big emitters need to step up to the plate and must accept real targets. It is urgent that we start work now – and this week’s Summit is the perfect opportunity – to develop a new universal consensus on how to prevent global warming in the post-2012 period. Our own domestic plan of action has mandatory greenhouse gas reduction targets for large emitters. Every year, large emitters must become more energy efficient and emit less carbon per unit of production – intensity improvements of 18% by 2010, and 2% a year beyond that each and every year.
And let me stress that this plan will not allow emissions to continue to grow indefinitely. Improvements in emissions intensity of this magnitude mean that there will be real, absolute reductions in emissions levels by at least 2012 and as early as 2010. It will put us on track to absolute greenhouse gas reductions of 20% by 2020. And, let me be clear, Canada’s long-term target of a 60 to 70% reduction of 2006 emissions by 2050 is consistent with cutting global greenhouse gas emissions by half over 1990 levels – a goal sought by the European Union.
The approach we have chosen, basing emissions reduction targets on units of production in the short run, allows growing and developing economies to engage in significant greenhouse gas reductions without putting themselves at immediate risk. And in the long run, I believe Chancellor Merkel and I are on the same page on this point at least: all countries must embrace ambitious absolute reduction targets, so that the International Panel on Climate Change’s goal of cutting emissions in half by 2050 can be met. Of course, it may not be possible for all countries, or all industries and firms within all countries, to reduce their emissions by the same amount on the same time line. That is why other compliance measures such as carbon offsets and carbon trading are also necessary. They are part of Canada’s plan and, provided they are not just an accounting shell game, they must be part of a universal, international regime. Ladies and gentlemen, it is time for all countries – especially the large emitters represented this week at the meetings of the G8 and the five major developing countries – to come together and cooperate as we move towards a post-2012 regime. We cannot afford to have the world divided on this issue, to pit right against left, Europe against America, or the developed countries against the developing world. We need a plan that takes into account both different starting points and different national circumstances, but that moves us all towards a common destination. There will be much debate in the weeks and months ahead over the best course of action for the world after the end of the Kyoto Protocol in 2012.
In the meantime, there is much else we can do. We’re involved in a number of international partnerships that are working to develop new technologies – from carbon sequestration to renewable fuels to clean coal – that will lead to significant emission reductions. Indeed, the agreement signed today between Canada’s National Research Council and Germany’s Helmholtz Association will bring together some of the world’s best researchers in the fields of alternative energy, bio-fuels and other environmentally friendly energy sources. Technology is the key. Just as the Stone Age did not end because the world ran out of stones, the Carbon Age will not end because the world runs out of fossil fuels. Instead, human ingenuity will develop alternative forms of energy as well as cleaner, greener ways to use carbon. And Canada will be at the forefront, as a green energy superpower.” (Stephen Harper, Berlin, 4 June 2007)
“The growing menace of climate change is one of the most important public policy challenges of our time… For at least a decade most Governments, including Canada’s Government, paid lip service to the issue because they were unwilling to tell the public that reducing carbon emissions will have real economic costs. We need to take action. We owe it to future generations, just as we owe them a strong and secure economic future.” (Stephen Harper, 7 September 2007, APEC Business Summit, Australia)
“Now of course, I am in your city this week on another matter, excuse me, where Canada intends to lead by example, and that is the challenge of climate change. Yesterday at the U.N. climate change meeting and at last night’s dinner, leaders joined with the secretary-general to discuss solutions to the problems of rising greenhouse gas emissions. Let me be clear. Canada believes we need a new international protocol that contains binding targets for all of the world’s major emitters, including the United States and China. And it is through such targets that the development and deployment of new clean energy technology will be stimulated.
That is what we are doing in Canada. We’re implementing a national system of mandatory greenhouse gas emission reduction across major industrial sectors. Our plan will reduce Canada’s total emissions by 20 percent to the year 2020, and 60 to 70 percent by 2050. And make no mistake; this system will impose real cost on the Canadian economy. At the same time, by basing our early targets on emissions intensity, we are balancing effective environmental action with the reality that Canada has a growing population and growing economic output. The message is that we need to take action. We owe it to future generations, just as we owe them the opportunity to have the economic prosperity that we do today. We owe them both — sustainable environment and a prosperous economy.
In the global fight against climate change, Canada will do everything in its power to help develop an effective, all-inclusive international environmental framework that recognizes national economic circumstances, just as we did with the successful Montreal Protocol on the protection of the ozone layer, on which I should add that international progress could not have come without the leadership at the table demonstrated by the United States and China.
The solution to climate change cannot and will not be one size fits all, but neither can nations treat this issue as simply somebody else’s responsibility. This is the message we’ve delivered at home to Canadians. It’s the message we brought to our G-8 colleagues in June at the summit there in Heiligendamm. It’s the message we gave to APEC countries and business leaders in Sydney, Australia, two weeks ago, and it’s the message I conveyed during discussions here in New York.” (Stephen Harper, Council on Foreign Relations, September 25, 2007)
“We had a productive dialogue on climate change. We all recognized the urgency of taking action to minimize the adverse impacts of climate change. In particular, we recognized the threats to small island states, low-lying coastal states and the least-developed countries. Those of us going to Copenhagen share a common understanding that we need to act together. Canada is seeking a long-term international agreement where we all contribute to the solution. Such an agreement would also encourage the development and use of clean technologies while fostering the economic growth needed to pay for global warming mitigation.” (Statement by the Prime Minister of Canada, 29 November 2009 Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago)
A funny thing happened in 2007…
Tags: Canada, Climate change, Kyoto, Stephen Harper
