Canada ranks fourth-worst in Climate Change Performance Index
Canada has been ranked one of the worst countries in the world in terms of its efforts on climate change.
Out of the 57 highest-emitting countries included in the Climate Change Performance Index for 2011, only Saudi Arabia, Kazakhstan, and Australia placed lower.
According to the report—released today (December 6) by Germanwatch and Climate Action Network Europe at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Cancun—the CCPI takes each country’s emissions trend, emissions level, and climate policy into account.
Canada has “fallen eight ranks with respect to emissions levels as a result of its high emissions trend”, the report states.
It notes that Canada, whose performance is classified as “very poor”, is responsible for 1.88 percent of global energy-related greenhouse-gas emissions.
Last year, Canada claimed the second-last spot in the index.
Climate Change Performance Index 2011
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Comments
2 Comments
fossil fuel is for fools
Dec 6, 2010 at 12:28pm
If we don't smarten up to rely more on non-fossil fuel sources for cars and transit we are going to suffer the same fate as the ones running from the walking dead in last night's finale when the generator on fossil fuel died ...
Kim McNeil
Dec 6, 2010 at 5:11pm
Are the Conservatives so blinded by the prospect of dirty energy profits that they discount the significance and scale of climate change? Do they not get that we are all human beings sharing a common planet whose bounty, and thus ours, is determined by the stability of our climate system? Do they think we live in a bubble where we can happily pollute away to no consequence? If they don't then someone please tell me how they could let this civilizational crisis fall on the shoulders of our children and grandchildren. Other countries clearly get it:
"Science tells us the probability of climate change being man made is 90 per cent. If someone told us that there was a nine in ten chance of your house being burned down, I suspect most of us would take care to renew the fire insurance."
~ Chris Hune, Conservative, UK Secretary of State, http://www.decc.gov.uk/en/content/cms/news/Energy_Summit/Energy_Summit.aspx
"In Europe, we believe, according to science, that there is a real threat to our survival as a civilization. And for the future of our planet and the quality of life of our children."
~ Jose Manuel Barroso, president of European Union Commission, http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2010/05/05/harper-barroso-europe-climate-c...
"Mr. Calderon said Mexico couldn’t wait for rich countries to do something about climate change, as droughts hit his country and Mexico City’s water supply shrank, and had to take its own action: “In Mexico, we cannot wait. We cannot wait for the developed countries to make a decision,” the Mexican President said at a joint press conference with Mr. Harper. “We know that the quality of life, and the future, is at risk. And I mean the future of a great deal of humanity.”"
~ Jose Calderon, President of Mexico, http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/mexicos-president-pushes-ot...
Christiana Figueres, head of the UN’s cli mate talks, gets it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzOwjFYXG4I
Count me among the group of Canadians that doesn't want to spend the rest of their lives watching much of the world face disaster after disaster just so we can maintain highly polluting lifestyles. There are other ways and many countries are embracing these ways. We Canadians can too. It's a matter of choice.