1. It's not ready yet.

The text of the US-Canada Clean Energy Dialogue states that Canada and the US will collaborate in 'key areas of energy science and technology.' Leaving aside the question of why we are ignoring what science is already telling us—using less energy will reduce greenhouse gas emissions—the technologies promoted by Canadian leaders in particular will come too late. Workable carbon capture and storage is more than 20 years away. The new nuclear reactors planned by Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty are going to take more than a decade to build. Scientific consensus tells us that if don't stabilize global emissions by 2015, we may be too late to avoid the worst effects of climate change. In other words, we don't have ten years to start cutting emissions. We don't have ten months. We have to start now.

2. It might not work at all.

According to a report by Greenpeace International, carbon capture technology 'has not been made to work on anything approaching the level needed for a full-scale power plant.' In addition, no-one has yet managed to combine the 'capture' with the 'storage' elements of the concept. Perhaps most disturbingly, carbon capture and storage (CCS) would be incredibly energy intensive. According to the report, the increased energy requirements of CCS would effectively wipe out the power plant efficiency gains of the last 50 years. For every four CCS-equipped coal-fired power plants, a fifth would be needed to make up the energy shortfall. CCS could also double plant costs and lead to electricity price hikes estimated at between 21 and 91 per cent.

3. It's a distraction.

'Technology' as a word has its own, shiny connotations: progress, innovation, growth, the future. It's hard to argue with technology as a concept. But as a reality, technology like CCS will likely do more harm than good. In the end, CCS might not have any real effect on greenhouse gas emissions. The discussion around technology, on the other hand, is guaranteed to have very real effects. It will defer the development of clean energy like wind and solar power. And dirty energy producers will have bought themselves more time.

4. It comes with it's own environmental problems.

The nuclear industry and some government leaders tell us that nuclear power will help solve climate change. But technologies like nuclear power come with their own, severe risks for the planet. The deadly radioactive waste from nuclear reactors remains deadly for hundreds of thousands of years. Leaks of radioactive material are common, and full-scale nuclear acccidents—as we've seen in Chernobyl—are possible. Other 'innovative' solutions, like biofuels (which are mentioned in the 'Clean Energy Dialogue'), have a terrible human cost. In 2007, the United Nations special rapporteur on the right to food called biofuels, which are made from food crops like wheat and corn, a 'crime against humanity.' According to the Earth Policy Institute, the grain needed to fill the gas tank of an SUV could feed one person for a year. Biofuels are already taking food out of the mouths of people. In 2008, approximately one-third of the US corn crop went to biofuel. Last year the United Nations World Food Programme also warned that it lacked the resources to keep up with rising food prices which it attributed, in part, to biofuels.

5. It's beside the point.

The narrative of technology tells industry and individuals in both countries that we can have our cake and eat it too. Forget about restructuring our economic system so it does not rely on the steady destruction of the planet. We'll capture carbon and put it in the ground instead. Technology, at this point, doesn't really mean technology (because, let's face it, solar panels are technology, so are wind turbines). It is code for the status quo. And the status quo is exactly what got us here in the first place.

There is still time to take action on climate change. Visit www.greenpeace.ca/kyotoplus to send a message to your MP and to Stephen Harper. Tell everyone you know. Organize at work and in your community. And do not give up. Everything's at stake.

For a whole book full of inspiring, world-changing ideas, order The Greenpeace Living Guide today.