ters like China and India to cut the amount of greenhouse gases they produce.” Yet on a per capital basis, Canada and the U.S. each emit a whopping 24 tonnes per capita, compared to China at 6 tonnes and India at 2 tonnes (data source: Netherlands Envi-ronmental Assessment Agency). At the 2009 Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, the Government of Cana-da committed to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions 17 per cent from 2005 levels by 2020. However, Environment Canada’s latest projections show that Can-ada will again fail to meet its commitment. On October 7, 2014, Julie Gelfand, Canada’s commissioner of the environment and sustainable development, released a series of environmental performance au-dits – including one on the federal gov-ernment’s performance regarding the re-duction of greenhouse gas emissions. The audit reported that Canada has made un-satisfactory progress in: putting sufficient measures in place to reduce greenhouse gas emissions; assessing the success of the few measures that are in place co-operat-ing with the provinces and territories; and developing plans to achieve the 2020 Co-penhagen Accord target of a 17 per cent reduction in emissions below 2005 levels for Canada’s economy as a whole. The report concludes, “The absence of effective federal planning, including unclear timelines, leaves responsible organizations at all levels without essential information for identifying, directing, and co-ordinat-ing their reduction efforts. It also means that there are no benchmarks against which to monitor and report on progress. For ex-ample, industries that may be affected by regulations cannot plan their investments effectively. In our view, the lack of a clear plan and an effective planning process is a particularly significant gap given that Can-ada is currently projected to miss its 2020 emission reduction target.” There is little prospect that the Canadi-an situation will change. On June 9, 2014, Prime Minister Stephen Harper was asked about his approach to climate change. He insisted he won’t be pressured to alter his business-friendly climate-change policies, saying the Conservative government is simply more upfront than leadership in some other countries about its intention to avoid abatement measures that hurt jobs and economic growth. “No matter what they say, no country is going to take actions that are going to de-liberately destroy jobs and growth in their country. We are just a little more frank about that,” the Prime Minister said. On October 28, 2014, Germanwatch – a sustainable development advocacy group – reported that Canada is dead last among industrialized nations in a new climate change performance index. Germanwatch said, “Canada still shows no intention on moving forward with climate policy and therefore remains the worst performer of all industrialized countries.” We are indeed fortunate that European customers continue to demand Canadian wood pellets. After all, in the words of Commissioner Gelfand, “If Canada does not honour its climate change commit-ments, it cannot expect other countries to honour theirs. If countries fail to reduce their emissions, the large environmen-tal and economic liabilities we will leave our children and our grandchildren [will include] more frequent extreme weather, reduced air quality, rising oceans, and the spread of insect-borne diseases.” • KAHL Wood Pelleting Plants Quality worldwide. AMANDUS KAHL GmbH & Co. KG, SARJ Equipment Corp., Mr. Rick B. MacArthur, 29 Golfview Blvd., Bradford, Ontario L3Z 2A6 Phone: 905-778-0073, Fax: 905-778-9613, [email protected] www.akahl.de Canadian BIOMASS 9
Canadian Biomass November - December 2014: Page 9
