The Montreal Gazette reports that, “Canada should be doing more to tackle climate change, and should consider closing down the controversial oil sands projects in northern Alberta, (Rajendra Pachauri) the head of the United Nations scientific panel on climate change said Monday. … He said until technologies like carbon capture and storage that would sequester greenhouse gases produced by the oil sands are better developed, the projects in Alberta’s Athabasca region should be put on hold.”
Pachauri, who accepted the 2007 Nobel Prize on behalf of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, said, “In the last couple of years, I’m afraid, Canada has not been seen as sitting at the table. I think Canada should be doing much more.” He also said, “It’s something that perhaps could lead to regrets later on, so you might as well make sure that all the requirements that are to be met to ensure environmental protection are taken in hand right at the beginning rather than being forced to take actions later.”
Pachauri said that Canada should cut its greenhouse gas emissions by at least 25 percent below 1990 levels by 2020, rather than the Harper government’s plan of cutting emissions by 20 percent below 2006 levels by 2020.
The full article is at http://www.montrealgazette.com/business/Canada+failing+fight+against+climate+change+panel+says/2016158/story.html. Watch for Council of Canadians energy campaigner Andrea Harden-Donahue’s analysis on this in her campaign blog at www.canadians.org/energyblog.
