Harper bullish on nuclear"Harper said Friday that he is bullish about nuclear energy, predicting that it will be "part of the mix as we deal with energy and environmental challenges in the next century."
Harper presses alternative accord to Kyoto
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Font: * * * * Allan Woods, with files from Mike De Souza, SheldonAlberts, CanWest News Service; with files from Canadian Press
Published: Saturday, May 20, 2006
GATINEAU, Que. -- Prime Minister Stephen Harper moved Canada one step closer to joining an environmental accord with six nations at odds with the Kyoto protocol in a meeting Friday with his Australian counterpart, John Howard.
The two conservative leaders met at Meech Lake, across the Ottawa River from the nation's capital, on the second day of Howard's three-day tour, and later told reporters that Canada has expressed interest in participating in the Asia-Pacific Partnership, which also includes the United States, China and India, in addition to Australia, Japan and South Korea.
"I know that the Australians and others are looking at really focusing on dealing with this through the application of technology and technological development," Harper said. "This is very much the path our government's looking at."
Howard said his government would "warmly welcome" Canada's participation and he would be "very surprised" if the other member countries did not feel the same.
Harper's Tories have been subject to domestic and international scorn for raising doubts about the greenhouse-gas reduction plans set out for Canada under Kyoto. Environment Minister Rona Ambrose has noted that Canada's emissions have risen to 35 per cent above what they were in 1990, while the international treaty dictates that the country reduce those emissions 24 per cent by 2012.
Ambrose described the new environmental accord as a "complement to Kyoto" that would allow the private sector a greater role in fighting climate change, but Howard was less delicate in describing the different approaches between the two pacts.
"This is an issue where you have people who are very doctrinaire," he said. "They think the only path to environmental salvation is the Kyoto path and we don't hold that view and certainly from what I've heard today, from what the prime minister has said, nor does the Canadian government."
Members of the partnership, known as the AP6, tout their new pact as the only viable solution to the pressing problem of climate change and pollution because it includes the world's three largest emitters -- China, India and the U.S.
Without those three countries on side, Howard said, "you are not going to get a serious addressing of the problem."
The group seeks to "marry emission reductions with economic progress and development," Howard explained.
"No advanced country is going to sacrifice a significant amount of economic development and jobs mindlessly or carelessly, and what we have to do is to find ways of reducing greenhouse gas emissions that do not cost us an economic price," he said.
CanWest reported this month that the Conservative government's environmental plan, expected to be rolled out this fall, will focus on the transportation and electricity sectors.
Harper said Friday that he is bullish about nuclear energy, predicting that it will be "part of the mix as we deal with energy and environmental challenges in the next century."
Former prime minister Brian Mulroney provided a window into the Conservative government's thinking on the environment several weeks ago when he said in an Ottawa speech that Canada must engage the U.S if it wants to make progress on emissions reductions.