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For release: September 24, 2007

PM Harper fails the test at the United Nations

(New York-Ottawa) Today, Prime Minister Stephen Harper attended a high-level meeting on climate change at the United Nations (UN) in New York, convened by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. Judging by his speech at the Thematic Roundtable on the Role of Technology the Prime Minister is continuing to present weak proposals on the international stage, thereby undermining meaningful progress in climate change discussions.

“The Prime Minister's speech is a big disappointment”, said Dale Marshall, David Suzuki Foundation. “Clearly Mr. Harper was pointing the finger at developing countries to deflect attention from Canada not taking on further commitments under the UN process. This meeting was billed as promoting leadership on climate change; obviously the Prime Minster still finds this challenging.”

In order for the Prime Minister to have been a credible advocate for preventing dangerous climate change, the international community needed to hear Canada's firm commitment to a UN negotiating mandate this year on emission targets and timelines for a second phase of the Kyoto Protocol. The Prime Minister also failed, once again, to commit Canada to taking on its fair share of the necessary deep cuts in global greenhouse gas pollution.

“Stephen Harper let Canadians and the world down today”, said Emilie Moorhouse, Sierra Club of Canada. “Canadians would like to see their country play a constructive role in this global effort, yet the Prime Minister continues to align himself with George Bush on climate policy and undermine international efforts to reduce emissions.”

“Mr. Harper failed to rise to the challenge of Ban Ki-moon and take this opportunity to commit to science-based, legally binding targets under a second phase of Kyoto”, said Johanne Whitmore, Pembina Institute. “The Prime Minister missed a unique opportunity to begin restoring Canada's reputation on climate change.”

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