GOLDSTEIN: Prime Minister Heads UN Climate Conference With Big Expenses But Little Results

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Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is addressing the world’s largest annual meeting on climate change this week in Glasgow, Scotland, armed with his commitment to spend more than $ 100 billion on fighting climate change, including nearly $ 8. billion in climate-related foreign aid to developing nations.

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But what he hasn’t done is reduce Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions since its liberal government was elected in 2015.

Based on the latest available government data covering his first term in office from 2015 to 2019, Canada’s emissions increased by seven million tons, or 1%, from 723 million tons in 2015 to 730 million tons in 2019.

Trudeau recently announced that he is increasing his commitment under the United Nations Paris climate agreement to reduce Canada’s emissions, known as “Nationally Determined Contributions” or NDCs, to 40% -45% below levels. from 2005 to 2030, up from its previous target of 30%. down from 2005 to 2030.

However, the UN annual report on the “emissions gap” released last week said that while Canada and the United States “have come up with strengthened NDC targets … independent studies suggest they are not on track to meet their targets. from previous NDCs with currently implemented policies. ” Therefore, these two countries must make significant additional efforts to meet their new NDC targets. “

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The report calls Canada a “leader” in dedicating a significant portion of government spending earmarked for the economic recovery from the COVID-19 recession to green initiatives.

Trudeau is among 120 world leaders, along with United States President Joe Biden, attending the annual UN climate summit in Glasgow from November 1 to 12, known as COP 26, that is, the 26th meeting of the Conference of the Parties. (The first was held in Berlin, Germany in 1995).

But Chinese President Xi Jinping, whose country is the world’s largest greenhouse gas emitter, responsible for 27% of global emissions and, as of 2019, more emissions than the entire developed world combined, will not attend, though you will follow the procedures through video. conferences.

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Xi’s absence raises the question of why the Glasgow summit could not have been held via video conferencing, as opposed to the huge carbon footprint it will create amid a global pandemic, with many countries discouraging non-essential travel.

Some 20,000 delegates will attend – including global elites who fly emissions-spewing private jets – with security provided by 10,000 police officers from across the UK.

Ironically, while the UN conference will denounce the use of fossil fuels, many countries struggle to increase their supplies of coal, oil, and natural gas as their economies begin to recover from the COVID-19 recession, because wind power and solar cannot provide a foundation. charge energy to the electricity grid on demand.

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Canceled last year due to the pandemic, the UN will deliver at this meeting the same message that it has done since 1995: that the world is on the brink of catastrophic global warming and that developed nations are not doing enough to reduce their emissions. nor contribute enough money for developing nations to help them tackle climate change.

“Until now, climate action has been characterized by weak promises that have yet to be kept,” Inger Andersen, executive director of the United Nations Environment Program, said last week, noting that the UN’s goal is to avoid a global temperature rise of more than 1.5 ° C to 2 ° C compared to pre-industrial levels by 2100.

“These commitments only reduce projected emissions by 7.5% for 2030, compared to the previous round of commitments. This is far from adequate. Reductions of 30% are needed to stay on the lowest cost path for 2C and 55% for 1.5C.

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“If nations only implement hardcore NDCs as is, we are likely to reach global warming of around 2.7 ° C by the end of the century. The current promises of net zero (by 2050) could reduce another 0.5 ° C of global warming, but these promises remain ambiguous, are delayed in many cases, and are not included in the NDCs. “

Trudeau has committed to reducing Canada’s emissions (1.6% of the global total, although we are one of the world’s largest per capita emitters) to net zero by 2050, through measures such as its national carbon tax and other initiatives. of green energy.

The UN report said that while global emissions fell an unprecedented 5.4% last year due to the recession caused by the pandemic, they are expected to rise 4.8% this year as global economies begin. to recover, raising them to their second highest level. level never, only slightly below the record set in 2019.

A UN report by former Canadian environment minister Jonathan Wilkinson (now natural resources minister) and his German counterpart said last week that developed nations have failed to fulfill their 2009 commitment to send 100,000 to developing nations. million dollars annually by 2020 to fight climate change, although that goal should be reached in 2023.

The Trudeau administration has earmarked $ 7.95 billion for the 2015-25 fund.

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