Canada to Impose Carbon Cuts If Government Falls (Update1)

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Dec. 11 (Bloomberg) — Canada’s opposition parties would implement tough carbon-dioxide emissions targets if they vote to topple Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s minority Conservative government next year, the country’s Green Party leader said.

A coalition government would aim to reduce output of the greenhouse gas by 30 percent by 2020 from 1990 levels and 80 percent by 2050, Elizabeth May said in an interview in Poland where United Nations climate negotiations are taking place.

Canada, whose CO2 emissions have risen almost a third since 1990, promised to lower output 20 percent by 2020 from 2006 levels, according to its chief climate-change negotiator. Canada is among the worst transgressors of the Kyoto treaty, which obliges richer countries to reduce CO2, blamed for contributing to global warming.

“Canada’s position is not middling bad but bottom of the heap,” May said today. “Canadians would be shocked to known how bad their country’s reputation is at these conferences. It’s a real source of shame.”

Delegates from 187 countries are negotiating a successor treaty to the Kyoto pact, which Canada signed and ratified. The North American country is among those hindering progress toward an agreement, which must be reached next year in Copenhagen, the environmental group Greenpeace said.

“Canada has played one of the worst roles at the climate conference and has blocked support for many initiatives including midterm emissions targets for developed countries,” David Martin, a Greenpeace spokesman, said in an interview.

Liberal Party lawmakers in Canada reached an accord on Dec. 8 with the New Democratic Party and separatist Bloc Quebecois to bring down Harper’s government on what they say has been a lack of government stimulus for the economy.

In response, the prime minister suspended parliament until Jan. 26. Harper has governed since 2006 without a majority mandate.

As part of a possible coalition pact, the Liberals had to give up their plan to introduce a carbon tax, May said. Sources of tension in environmental policy among the opposition parties include oil production from Alberta’s tar sands, she added.

By Jeremy van Loon