PROVINCES CAN LEAD ON CLIMATE RESEARCH

Canada is likely a significant carbon sink and not an emitter, posits F. Larry Martin.

I don’t know about you, but I’m awfully tired of being shamed for living in Western Canada. Attacks on our collective self-esteem come not only from folks in big eastern cities who have no trouble benefiting from our fossil fuel revenue, but from our own federal government.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau seems to find sport in lecturing us like children about our supposed CO2 emission transgressions, assailing us with taxpayer-funded social engineering campaigns, and victimizing us with a forced carbon tax.

Thankfully, Saskatchewan is challenging the constitutionality of the federal government’s assertion that being our omnipresent climate overlord falls under the auspices of “peace, order and good government.”

Premier Scott Moe has the explicit support of the Ontario and New Brunswick governments. It’s time for Canada’s like-minded premiers to get together and craft informed and logical action on the climate file. To achieve this, they must have the humility to do something the Trudeau Liberals never will: admit they don’t know everything, and find answers.

The prime minister says Canada is guilty of polluting the atmosphere with CO2, and that we owe a debt to the world which he committed to address in Paris. He’s determined to “put a price on carbon” to change our behaviour.

However, the Paris Agreement is rooted in the Kyoto accord, which Canada signed over 20 years ago without negotiating what we needed. When we put pen to paper on Kyoto, Canada signed away one of our great advantages, the CO2 absorbing and sequestering of our expansive lands. Ever since, Canada’s leaders have obsessed about our emissions but they’ve never produced a CO2 budget using the full carbon cycle.

Ottawa has not scientifically established that Canada is a net contributor to adverse climate change. We need to understand where the balance is. If our emissions are greater than our land absorbs, we contribute to global warming. If it’s the other way around, we contribute to global cooling.

Canadians have no idea what we need to do to reach a carbon balance, because our federal government refuses to investigate. This omission prevents us from having an informed debate or gaining any idea of where eco-justice can be found in our policy choices. Our country’s eco-fiscal analyses are operating with only half a balance sheet.

If the federal Liberal government were open and honest in its pursuit of “peace, order, and good government” it would immediately seek to rectify the ethical quandary caused by ignoring CO2 absorption while punishing emissions. Yes, scientific inquiry could still lead to carbon pricing, but then that price would apply both ways.

The latest world budget from the Global Carbon Project, made up of hundreds of scientists from reputable institutions, shows over 11 billion tonnes of CO2 moved from the atmosphere to the Earth’s land.

Averaged out over the planet, that is approximately 100 tonnes per square kilometre. Canada emits well under 100 tonnes per square kilometre. Meanwhile, the four worst polluting regions — China, India, U.S., and EU — emit 500 to 1,100 tonnes per square kilometre each.

Canada owns 10 per cent of the world’s forests and 25 per cent of its peatland. The most likely assumption is Canada is a significant net carbon sink, not a net emitter. So why does the prime minister choose to talk down Canada without offering proof ?

It’s not like the Government of Canada doesn’t acknowledge that CO2 absorption is a thing. The feds’ own climate web page brags that “by protecting our lands and oceans, we help fight and mitigate the effects of climate change … (they) act as carbon sinks, absorbing emissions that would otherwise heat our planet.”

When the Kyoto Protocol was negotiated in the 1990s, European nations formalized their free ride at the expense of those with vast absorption capacity, like Canada, Russia, Brazil, Australia. Europe had already largely destroyed their natural landscapes, so they ensured we wouldn’t get full credit for ours. The U.S. pulled out of the deal, while Canada caved and signed.

Without the will to find out how much our country is contributing to global carbon absorption, how can Ottawa make any fair climate policy decision whatsoever? Trudeau is putting his relationships with his perceived partners overseas ahead of his fellow citizens.

There is a high road to take that involves understanding the full carbon cycle and building logical climate policy. Our prime minister won’t take that path, but our provincial leaders certainly can. They could start by commissioning research to quantify Canada’s carbon sinks. That would provide the missing piece of the budget.

If the result proves Canada is a net sink, the prime minister’s logic for a carbon tax is gone and the global free riders would owe Canada. If not, at least we will have enough data to know where our net neutral target is, and citizens can rally around getting us to that goal.

Let’s help identify Canada’s lands critical to climate change and show some real-world leadership. Ask Russia, Brazil, Australia, and others with large natural land masses to join with research for their own countries; they have much to gain, too.

You’re probably thinking national and international leadership ought not to fall to the Saskatchewan government. You’re right, but we must compensate for Ottawa’s failure and help produce the carbon budget that Trudeau will not.

Our federal government has judged Canadians in Saskatchewan and throughout the West guilty of climate crimes they don’t care to prove, across jurisdictions over which they might not have authority, for reasons that have little to do with fighting climate change.

But our provincial governments can lead where Trudeau won’t, to the benefit of all Canadians. So if the provinces, especially in Western Canada, take the high road, we might just prevent lasting damage to Canada and get the “good government” on the climate file that we need and deserve.

Ottawa has not scientifically established that Canada is a net contributor to adverse climate change. F. LARRY MARTIN