Oh Canada…

This week, Canadian officials formally announced what everyone has known for years: Canada will withdraw from the Kyoto Protocol and renounce the commitments and promises it made in 1997 (and many times since). In fact, Canadian federal officials plan for the country’s emissions to go up. They don’t call press conferences to announce that, of course. But there it is. As the impacts of climate change become clear across North America, Ottawa and Washington do nothing and occasionally try to paper over inaction with nice words about the future.

The international community long ago said goodbye to dashing Canadian Prime Ministers who made news around the world. Now we must all say goodbye – in English, in French and a host of other languages -- to the days when Canadian officials and Canadians writ large wanted to be in the forefront of international cooperation. They used to push US officials and Americans to be better global citizens, to work cooperatively to solve common international problems, and to reinvest in global institutions. Now, they don’t.

Now we must all say goodbye – in English, in French and a host of other languages -- to the days when Canadian officials and Canadians writ large wanted to be in the forefront of international cooperation.

As in a handful of US states, some provincial efforts in Canada are impressive and making progress. British Columbia’s carbon tax is a world leader, like California’s attempts to drive down carbon emissions and increase energy efficiency and renewable energy generation. In both countries, however, national officials are indifferent to these state and provincial leaders (at best) or openly hostile to such policy experiments. Pro-climate change politicians in Ottawa prove feckless and unable to inspire the nation, while their conservative colleagues barely even pretend to care if emissions go down or if energy efficiency increases. And of course, as in Washington, it is fashionable in Ottawa to blame international institutions and previous national governments for failures to act nationally in the present. After Canadian officials went to Durban and worked to avoid any serious future emissions reduction commitments, and then formally announced they were leaving Kyoto to avoid being fined for their broken promises, I can only close by saying what everyone around the world is thinking, and what Canadians most hate to hear: “You’re basically just like Americans.”