“We underestimated the flow of emissions from developing countries, especially China,” he said, observing that emissions of greenhouse gases from China over the next 25 years will equal the total emissions from the U.S. and Europe over the last century. Emissions from developing countries and developed countries must be capped, he said, but the ethics of allocating the pain are delicate. “If you’re consuming the goods, you can’t blame the location of the factory,” he argued.

CLIMATE CHANGE AND THE CANADIAN RESPONSE: PARTIES, POLICY…PROCEDURE?

Date: Mon 26 February, 7:00pm (week 7)
Venue: Magdalen College, Old Law Library

On February 2nd, 2007, the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change (IPCC) released a report stating – with over 90% certainty – that
global warming is the direct result of the accumulation of greenhouse gases
produced by human activity. These findings reconfirm that Climate Change is a
global concern of undeniable urgency – one which threatens to bring about
ecological and economic upheaval on an international scale, and one which we
can actually do something about.

On February 14th, 2007, the Canadian House of Commons passed a Private
Member’s Bill – introduced by Liberal backbencher Pablo Rodriguez and put
forth by a unified opposition – which forces Stephen Harper’s minority
Conservative government to “ensure Canada meets its global climate change
obligations under the Kyoto Protocol.” Since its election in January of 2006,
Harper’s Tory administration has been ideologically and effectively opposed to
the UN’s Kyoto Protocol, which assigns mandatory targets for the reduction of
greenhouse gas emissions to signatory nations. It was under Liberal leadership
that Canada formally ratified this treaty in 2002.

On Monday, February 26th, 2007, the Canadian Society will host a roundtable
discussion on Climate Change which will address the following questions: (1)
What is Canada – as a wealthy, leading nation – actually doing to combat
global warming? (2) Is the Canadian party system as it stands potentially
hindering the implementation of widespread and binding environmental policies?
(3) What can and should Canadians be doing to hold their government
accountable to younger and future generations on this issue?

The event will be held at Magdalen College, in the Old Law Library, from
7:00pm to 9:00pm. Please come on time, as the room has a limited capacity.
Questions/comments about the discussion: katie.musgrave@ccc.ox.ac.uk

There will be light refreshments available, including wine.

If that’s what it will take, I think we are royally screwed. There’s no hope in America until a new administration in 2008. Then, they would need to crack the whip pretty hard to deal with emissions growth between the present and then.

I have listened to “Lannigan’s Ball” 34 times in the last 24 hours.