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Climate Change Act passes final vote
By Colleen Kimmett May 5, 2010 03:55 pm
The federal NDP's Climate Change Accountability Act passed its final vote in the House of Commons today.
Bill C-311 sets greenhouse gas emissions targets consistent with the Kyoto protocol and those of other developed countries and is more stringent than Prime Minister Stephen Harper's goals.
Harper has argued that going beyond the U.S. targets (a 17 per cent reduction below 2005 levels) would be bad for the Canadian economy. This bill would require the federal government to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 25 per cent below 1990 levels over the next decade, and 80 per cent below 1990 levels by 2050.
The Liberals, NDP and Bloc Québécois united to push forward the bill, which passed with a vote of 149 to 136. It will now move to the Senate for debate.
"It is a great day for Canada as we finally have a blueprint for greening our future," declared NDP leader Jack Layton in a press release. "We would not be here without the thousands of Canadians who called and wrote to their Members of Parliament, pushing them to finally adopt meaningful climate-change legislation."
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Climate Change Act passes final vote :: The Hook
Canada has become the first nation to pass legislation for specific emissions reductions in a
post-Kyoto environment.
The Climate Change Accountability Act (Bill C-311) was tabled in 2006 by the NDP, Canada's social democratic party.
This finally puts Canada back on track as a nation that values environmental practices. Lately we have had a poor track record despite our traditional reputation for being a "green" nation. Although this is just one piece of the puzzle, I think this is a great step toward realigning our efforts to fit our principles.
I think, and hope, that more and more Canadians are realizing that we must start at home to tackle the problems arising from our degradation of the environment. We must take care of what we have, because there are no alternatives.
What do you think about this and the big picture? Do you suppose other nations will look to this legislation as a model? Do you think it's a bad idea? Do you think it goes far enough, or is it too one-dimensional?
It is my understanding that the EU already has a strong focus on climate change, so maybe this bill is just something overly officious and rather anticlimactic. However, if you consider the growing problems with the G-2 and with developing nations with high growth, anything that can act as a model or inspiration must be a good thing.
Is your government doing enough? What do you think the consensus is in your society?