Aglukkaq leads delegation at UN climate change conference

Canada’s environment minister Leona Aglukkaq, pictured here in 2012, is leading a Canadian delegation this week at the United Nations convention on climate change in Warsaw, Poland. (FILE PHOTO)

Federal environment minister Leona Aglukkaq is leading a Canadian delegation this week at the United Nations conference on climate change in Warsaw, Poland, where she pledged to deliver environmental and economic benefits to Canadians.

“The government of Canada is committed to establishing a fair and effective climate change agreement that includes commitments by all major emitters,” said Algukkaq, the MP for Nunavut, who serves as minister of the Canadian Northern Economic Development Agency and minister for the Arctic Council, in a Nov. 18 release.

“Our actions have resulted in real progress through avenues such as United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Arctic Council, and Climate and Clean Air Coalition.”

In the release, Aglukkaq said Canada is taking a leadership role in international climate change. She pointed to her government’s sector by sector approach, noting the country’s ban on the construction of traditional coal-fired electricity generation units.

Environment Canada said those regulations should cut back on about 214 megatonnes of greenhouse gas emissions over the next two decades.

The federal government committed to continue working with the provinces to reduce emissions from the oil and gas sectors, “while ensuring Canadian companies remain competitive.”

The government also promised investment in programs that will improve the “scientific understanding of climate change and help Canadians prepare for climate-related impacts, particularly in Canada’s North.”

But Aglukkaq’s arrival in Warsaw Nov. 18 coincided with the release of a report by the Washington-based Center for Global Development, which ranked Canada last on its environmental policies among a group of the world’s wealthiest countries.

The Commitment to Development Index ranks 27 of the world’s richest countries on policies that affect the more than five billion people living in poorer nations.

“Canada is not party to the Kyoto Protocol and has high fossil-fueled production, high greenhouse gas emissions and low gas taxes, putting it at the bottom,” the report noted.

At the UN’s 2011 climate change conference, then-environment minister Peter Kent said that the Harper government was still moving ahead to meet a target to reduce greenhouse gas emission by 17 per cent below 2005 levels by 2020.

In the Nov. 18 release, the government said Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions have decreased by 4.8 per cent since 2005.

That means the government has met about a quarter of its target since 2005, with less than seven years left to meet its goal.

In addition to the United Nations process to address climate change, Ottawa said it continues to work with the Arctic Council, the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer, with the Climate and Clean Air Coalition, and with the Global Methane Initiative to reduce Canada’s greenhouse gases.

Aglukkaq will lead the Canadian delegation at the Warsaw climate change conference until Nov. 22.