Business Leaders Express Dismay at Canada’s Climate Change Commitment in Kyoto

December 11, 1997

The Business Council on National Issues (BCNI) expressed surprise, disappointment and dismay at the Canadian government’s commitment negotiated at the Kyoto conference on global climate change.

Speaking on behalf of the BCNI, which is composed of chief executives representing the vast majority of Canada’s private sector economic output, President and Chief Executive Thomas d’Aquino said in Ottawa this morning that “the Canadian government’s commitment is unrealistic and void of any meaningful economic impact analysis. Most dangerous of all, the government has failed to develop public understanding and support for the sacrifices that would be required on the part of all Canadians to meet the agreed targets.”

Canada’s current emissions are considerably higher than in 1990, due to the country’s strong post-recession economic recovery. While the Kyoto commitment would require a cut of six percent from 1990 levels, the reduction from today’s levels would reach about 20 percent. “Meeting this target would require fundamental changes in the way Canadians live and do business,” Mr. d’Aquino said.

In the months prior to the Kyoto meetings, the BCNI repeatedly called for broad public debate on the climate change issue and for the adoption by Canadian government negotiators of a dynamic six-point plan that would both contribute to an environmentally responsible approach to the global greenhouse gas challenge and to an appropriate defence of Canada’s national economic interest. The BCNI plan called for a global agreement that would:

• encourage longer-term, environmentally and economically sound strategies;

• promote leadership on the part of the industrialized world but require commitments from the developing world as well;

• promote equity through differentiated country commitments;

• build in flexibility to pursue least-cost options;

• allow each signatory country to tailor its strategy to its particular circumstances; and

• encourage responsible national plans developed with the broad support of citizens, consumers, producers and sub-national governments (in Canada’s case, the provinces).

“The Kyoto result reflects precious little of these objectives. Canadian negotiators accepted an unrealistic reduction commitment that did not sufficiently differentiate Canada’s special circumstances as a large, thinly-populated, climatically cold, energy-intensive, largely export-dependent country,” Mr. d’Aquino said. “Clearly, the Australian negotiators (who won an eight percent increase in their country’s emissions, compared with the six percent cut agreed to by Canada) were vastly more successful in making their case.”

Mr. d’Aquino also expressed disappointment at the failure to provide for even voluntary commitments dealing with the greenhouse gas challenge on the part of the developing countries which, in the decades to come, will be the largest emitters. “The developed world must lead and show the way,” he said. “But to conclude a treaty without any commitment from the developing world is to guarantee our failure as a global community to deal with the challenge of climate change.”

“Canada’s Kyoto conference commitments present another formidable challenge to the Canadian government,” Mr. d’Aquino added. “Ottawa must now explain to Canadian citizens the social and economic sacrifices that will be required in terms of the impact on jobs, communities, industries and consumer habits”.

“Ottawa must also explain to the provinces how and why Canadian negotiators strayed so far from the consensus reached by federal, provincial and territorial ministers in Regina in November. And the government must explain to Canada’s business community how its position can be reconciled with business’s responsibility to invest, to export, to innovate and to create jobs in the ceaseless quest to enhance the country’s global competitiveness and our citizens’ standard of living.”

The BCNI President concluded: “The Business Council will continue to designate the global climate change issue as one of its top priorities and member companies will continue to pursue vigorously voluntary measures aimed at increased energy efficiency and accelerated technological innovation — twin goals that serve both the environment and economic growth.”