Canada's House of Commons Passes World's First Climate Bill
by David Sassoon - Jun 6th, 2008
Two days ago, Canada's elected chamber became the first in the world to adopt science-based targets to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions by 80% (from 1990 levels) by 2050.
It's headline news, and the lack of attention being given to this development is mystifying. (If anyone knows why, please comment.) A search on Google news turns up a story in the Times of India, a Bloomberg wire service piece and a few, short items from the Canadian press. That's it.
The law still has to pass through the Senate, and the Conservative government has vowed to ignore it, but even on a symbolic level it's deserving of more attention -- especially as this week Republicans in the US Senate killed pending climate legislation there.
The Canadian climate law was introduced by Jack Layton of the New Democratic Party as a "private member's bill," and it passed by a vote of 148-116, supported by other opposition parties. The bill also sets an interim target of a 25 per cent reduction in greenhouse gases by 2020 and requires progress reports from the government every five years.
It's not the only significant climate news out of Canada over the last week. The Montreal Stock Exchange opened a carbon exchange, and Quebec and Ontario announced a cap-and-trade agreement.
Premiers Dalton McGuinty and Jean Charest suggested Monday that Canada's federal government will have no choice but to follow their lead.
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It wasn't even headline news
It wasn't even headline news in the green press in Canada; it is meaningless if the Government says they are going to ignore it. I sincerely doubt that it is the first meaningless climate bill passed anywhere in the world.
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