Press release - March 18, 2007
Before the federal budget was presented to Parliament, Greenpeace activists today put Prime Minister Stephen Harper under house arrest for climate crimes. Early this morning, Greenpeace activists padlocked themselves to the gates of 24 Sussex Drive, preventing the Prime Minister from going to work to undermine the Kyoto Protocol. Banners branded Harper a “climate criminal”.
"The refusal of the Harper government to honour Kyoto violates
Canada's commitment to the world, and is a crime against the
planet," charged Dave Martin, Greenpeace Canada Energy Coordinator.
"By abandoning Kyoto, the Harper government is undermining
international efforts to curtail emissions, and exposing millions
of people to the dangerous impacts of climate change."
Prime Minister Harper has falsely called Kyoto unachievable,
claiming we don't have the technology to meet Kyoto targets.
However, a recent report by Greenpeace and the European Renewable
Energy Council entitled Energy [R]evolution: A Sustainable World
Energy Outlook, shows that global greenhouse gas emissions can be
cut in half by 2050, while providing a secure energy supply and
maintaining economic development.
"Canada already has the green energy technology to build a
carbon-free future - we are only lacking political will," said
Martin. "Prime Minister Harper is representing the interests of the
tar sands, not the Canadian people."
The government's claim that meeting our Kyoto target will cause
economic hardship is also false. Former World Bank chief economist
Sir Nicholas Stern has said the climate change can be mitigated by
spending only one per cent of global Gross Domestic Product per
year. Failure to act will cost 20 times more.
"A green economy is a prosperous economy. Acting on global
warming will put people to work. Delay will have huge economic and
environmental costs," Martin added.
To prevent dangerous climate change, Greenpeace has called on
the Harper government to start by meeting it Kyoto commitment - a 6
per cent reduction from 1990 levels by 2012. Canada and other
industrial nations must then achieve even deeper emissions
reductions from 1990 levels - 30 per cent by 2020 and 80 per cent
by 2050.
For more information, please contact:
Dave Martin, Greenpeace Energy Coordinator, cell:
416-627-5004.
Jane Story, Greenpeace Communications, cell: 416-930-9055