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The Honourable Jim Prentice
Minister of the Environment

Les Terrasses de la Chaudière
10 Wellington Street, 28^th Floor
Gatineau, Quebec
K1A 0H3

January 28, 2010

Minister Prentice,

The members of the Climate Action Network–Réseau action climat Canada are deeply disappointed at the failure of the UN summit in Copenhagen to reach agreement on a fair, ambitious and binding climate agreement. However, we believe that it is both possible and necessary to reach a fair, ambitious and binding global climate agreement in 2010. For that to happen, countries will have to strengthen their commitment to action under the Kyoto Protocol and the Framework Convention on Climate Change.

The most controversial outcome of the recent climate conference is undoubtedly the Copenhagen Accord, as it was drafted and finalized in secret negotiations to which most countries were not party.  Divisive from its inception, the Accord remains the subject of great debate, with a dubious legal status and uncertain political implications.  We fear that the Accord’s “pledge and review” system for developed countries’ emission reduction targets, and the absence of a science-based aggregate emission reduction goal, threatens to lock in the low levels of commitment that was seen in Copenhagen instead of providing a route towards a fair, ambitious and binding global agreement.

The United Nations is the most accountable, transparent, and inclusive forum for delivering a global climate change deal and the UNFCCC’s two-track process is the legitimate place for formalizing it.  We urge the government to renew its commitment to the UN process in the lead-up to the G8 and G20 summits that Canada will host in June of this year.

In that spirit, we also urge you to raise the level of Canada’s 2020 target. The current target of 20% below the 2006 level — equivalent to 3% below the 1990 level — is less stringent than Canada’s 2008–2012 Kyoto Protocol target of 6% below the 1990 level. 

Over the past year, Canadians have made it known through petitions, public demonstrations and other actions that a 25% reduction below 1990 levels by 2020 is what Canada must bring to the UN negotiating table.  Similarly, Parliament passed a motion last November endorsing science-based emission reduction targets.  It has long been time for our government to bring this target  — the Canadian people’s target  —  to the UN process.

Recent economic modelling analysis from MK Jaccard and Associates shows that Canada could meet a target of 25% below the 1990 level while growing its economy by over 23% from now to 2020, and while creating nearly two million net new jobs.[1] This target is at the lowest end of the target range of 25–40% below 1990 in 2020 identified by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) as industrialized countries’ contributions to an emissions reduction trajectory that provides a fair chance of avoiding 2°C of global warming, relative to the pre-industrial level.

The Copenhagen Accord recognizes the scientific view that the increase in global temperatures should remain below 2°C. There are many who feel that limiting warming to 2°C would still provoke dangerous climate change impacts, especially for the poorest and most vulnerable countries and communities. A fair contribution from Canada to keep global temperatures as far below 2°C as possible will require setting a more ambitious national emissions reduction target, a credible plan to achieve that goal, and significant, additional financing to assist developing countries in adaptation and mitigation. 

Climate Action Network International estimates that public climate financing of about $195 billion USD annually by 2020 is required to provide adequately for mitigation and adaptation in developing countries.  The Copenhagen Accord does not even come close to this level of financial support.  The Accord specifies at Paragraph 8 that developed countries will provide fast start financing “approaching USD 30 billion” for the three-year period from 2010 to 2012.  Paragraph 8 also includes “a goal of mobilizing jointly USD 100 billion dollars a year by 2020”. However, we note that most estimates show that more financing will be required than the US$100 billion mentioned in the Accord; that the goal does not specify what portion of the funds will be public; and that a “goal of mobilizing” does not constitute a firm financing commitment.

While many of our peer countries committed to providing fast start climate financing during the Copenhagen conference, Canada has remained silent on this issue.  Analysis of Canada’s contributions to other international financing efforts shows that our fair share is in the range of 3–4% of the global total. (For example, Canada’s assessed contribution to the Global Environmental Facility in 2006 was 4.28% of the total.) In the context of the Copenhagen Accord’s short-term financing initiative, therefore, Canada should provide C$320–420 million per year in new funds, over and above our Official Development Assistance commitments, from 2010 to 2012, as a first step towards a larger financing commitment in the post-2012 period.

We urge you to work with the Finance Minister to ensure the 2010 federal budget includes substantial new and additional resources to support adaptation and mitigation in the most vulnerable countries, without undermining your government’s commitment to an increased budget for Official Development Assistance.

We would be very pleased to meet with you as soon as possible to discuss the next steps in forging a strong and global climate change agreement.

Thank you in advance for your consideration of these matters.

Sincerely,

Graham Saul

Executive Director
Climate Action Network-Réseau action climat Canada

CC : The Hon. Jim Flaherty, Minister of Finance
          H.E. Michael Martin

[1] See Climate Leadership, Economic Prosperity: Final Report on an Economic Study of Greenhouse Gas Targets and Policies for Canada at http://climate.pembina.org/pub/1909.