Stephen Harper’s climate-change comments only half the story, critics say – Politics – CBC News.
Stephen Harper is often accused of being absent on environmental issues, but in a year-end interview with CBC News chief correspondent Peter Mansbridge, the prime minister said his government is doing its bit to combat climate change and that greenhouse gas emissions have dropped on his watch.
- Stephen Harper says Alberta’s carbon pricing model could ‘go broader’
- Full text of Peter Mansbridge’s interview with Stephen Harper
“We’ve got more work to do, but our emissions are falling,” Harper said on Wednesday.
“Other countries’ emissions for the most part are going up. World emissions are going up. Canada’s have not been going up.”
Canada’s emissions have dropped since 2008 largely because of the recession and industry slowdown. They have remained flat since 2010.
But the government’s own report suggests emissions will go up dramatically by the end of the decade because of oil and gas production, Canada’s emissions will be 22 per cent higher than its Copenhagen target of reducing greenhouse gases by 17 per cent below their 2005 levels by 2020.
