EDITORIAL: Canada, United Nations delusional on climate change
EDITORIAL: Canada, United Nations delusional on climate change
COP30 attendees in Brazil will emit carbon footprint nearly equivalent to greenhouse gases emitted by island nation of Samoa
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It’s fitting that Canada is attending the United Nations’ 30th annual Conference of the Parties (a.k.a. COP 30) on climate change because our government and the UN are equally delusional on the subject.
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Held annually in the world’s vacation hot spots, this year’s global gabfest in Belem, Brazil — a.k.a. the “Gateway to the Amazon” — has more than 56,000 registered delegates.
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Over 12 days, they will emit a carbon footprint the approximate equivalent to the annual greenhouse gas emissions of the small island nation of Samoa.
COP has been rightly described by critics as “private jets for climate change” given the number of politicians, celebrities, business leaders, rent seekers and lobbyists who fly in to these annual events, along with countless non-governmental organizations and environmental protesters.
Feds committed to Trudeau-era emission targets?
Meanwhile, global energy-related emissions last year reached their highest level ever — 37.8 billion tonnes.
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Canada’s delegation will be headed by Environment Minister Julie Dabrusin, who recently told the CBC’s environmental podcast What on Earth that the Mark Carney government is committed to achieving the Justin Trudeau government’s emission reduction cuts — a statement so divorced from reality it fits in perfectly with the rhetorical hot air coming from COP 30.
The feds have an interim target of reducing Canada’s emissions to 20% below 2005 levels by next year, or 607 million tonnes.
Canada’s emissions were estimated at 8.5% below 2005 levels in 2024, or 694 million tones, thus requiring an additional cut of 87 million tonnes by next year.
That would be the equivalent of shutting down all emissions from Canada’s buildings sector by next year.
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‘Ambitious’ targets merely a fantasy
Trudeau’s 2030 target of at least 40% below 2005 levels and 2035 target of at least 45% below 2005 levels on the way to net zero by 2050 are also fantasies.
Dabrusin, however, told the CBC: “Our targets remain the same. And we always knew that they were ambitious targets, right? So that was always going to be a stretch. But that’s the whole point of having ambitious targets … it forces us to do that stretch.”
Nonsense. These “aspirational” targets mislead the public.
In fact, since the Liberals came to power in 2015 they’ve committed more than $200 billion — almost $5,000 for every single Canadian — to cutting emissions without coming anywhere close to achieving their own targets.
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