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Canada’s compliance with its Kyoto pledges on climate change is a prerequisite for furthering trade
News Articles | GREEK SOCIALIST DELEGATION IN THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT Office of Kriton Arsenis | Press Release | April 22, 2010
Kriton Arsenis, Socialist MEP, asked the High Representative for Foreign Affairs of the EU, Catherine Ashton, to ensure that Canada’s compliance with its Kyoto pledges on climate change is a precondition for furthering trade cooperation during European Parliament’s last plenary session. Although Canada signed along with the EU the Kyoto Protocol unilaterally failed to honour its Kyoto pledges. Negotiations on a comprehensive economic trade agreement take place and the forthcoming EU-Canada summit in Brussels on 5 May is expected to focus on strengthening the economic relationship between the two partners.
Kriton Arsenis further emphasised that the reason for Canada’s provocative non-compliance with its climate-change pledges was strip mining for the tar sands oil industry. This activity leads to large CO2 emissions, violates the rights of indigenous communities, threatens public health, destroys water reserves and threatens biodiversity as well as some of the planet’s invaluable natural carbon sinks.
Catherine Ashton acknowledged that Canada’s role during the Copenhagen conference has failed to meet expectations. She stressed, however, that a change in Canada’s stance was anticipated and would be encouraged, in the hope of securing a commitment to a substantial decrease in C02 emissions within the framework of the Copenhagen accord. Lady Ashton essentially avoided responding to the question about tar sands oil extraction, although the destructive effects of this practice have led to an international outcry.After the plenary debate, Kriton Arsenis made the following statement.
“We will closely follow the progress of negotiations on a new Canada-EU trade agreement. It would be unacceptable not to place the environmental consequences of tar sands oil extraction on the negotiating table. This activity is the reason why Canada doesn’t honour its international commitments on climate change. It is impossible to regard any country which provocatively violates a legally binding climate change agreement, as a reliable partner in any other agreement.”
Tagged with: canada, tar sands, kyoto protocol
