Premiers put global warming on agenda

Campbell hopes to focus discussion on adapting to rapidly changing environment
JUSTINE HUNTER

From Tuesday's Globe and Mail

January 22, 2008 at 6:22 AM EST

VICTORIA — Canada's premiers meet next week in Vancouver to talk about climate change, but they could sidestep the thorny issue of how the nation cuts its greenhouse gas emissions - a subject on which there appears to be little prospect for agreement.

The meeting of the Council of the Federation, where climate change and interprovincial trade barriers are expected to top the agenda, is being held amid growing pressure on provincial leaders to harmonize Canada's patchwork of climate change regulations and policies.

But British Columbia Premier Gordon Campbell hopes instead to find accord on how to manage the fallout from global warming.

He'll play host at a forum that will focus on how Canadians adapt to the changing climate - an area where B.C.'s communities have already built up a wealth of unwanted experience, from wildfires and drought to floods and dead forests.

There remains a wide gap between the provinces on how to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions from industry and transportation, with most provinces and the federal government proceeding on different tracks.

Last week, federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty joined a chorus of business leaders who have complained about the piecemeal approach to cutting the pollution that is contributing to global warming.

The Canadian Council of Chief Executives has called on the premiers and territorial leaders to strive for a consensus on climate change policy.

Alberta, for example, is forging ahead with intensity-based carbon emission targets for heavy polluters that are out of step with the federal government's targets.

B.C. is aiming for an absolute reduction of one-third of emissions by 2020 based on 2007 emission levels, while Ontario is promising a 6-per-cent cut by 2014, using 1990 as a baseline.

And while most provinces support the adoption of California's plans for new vehicle fuel efficiency standards, Ontario is opposed.

While those differences will likely be discussed, Mr. Campbell hopes to focus the discussion for the first time on adaptation to, rather than mitigation of, global warming.

"Adaptation is about preparing ourselves for the inevitable," a B.C. government official said. "Adaptation will be the background to everything - it's water, it's forestry, it's emergency preparedness."

Richard Hebda, a leading climate change expert from the Royal B.C. Museum, said the premiers must not lose sight of the need to mitigate emissions, but said the province is well positioned to drive the adaptation agenda.

"We are the canary in the coal mine - northern B.C. is already cooking," he said yesterday.

Over the past century, minimum winter temperatures in almost every part of B.C. have increased, with increases of at least 3 per cent in the north and the Interior.

Across British Columbia, there are examples of the changes already taking place as a result: the devastating 2003 Kelowna wildfires, the destruction of vast stretches of forests due to the mountain pine beetle, the recent flooding in Prince George and drought on Vancouver Island that is killing grand firs in Mr. Hebda's own Victoria neighbourhood.

"Our landscape is going to change and we have to prepare for those changes," Mr. Hebda, the curator of botany and Earth history at the Royal B.C. Museum as well as a professor of biology at the University of Victoria.

"A lot of our population is concentrated in narrow areas with significant exposure to flooding, fires and droughts," he said. "Premier Campbell has to impress upon the other premiers how important adaptation is. I'm not sure all of them are there yet."

The council will meet in Vancouver on Monday and Tuesday, with the second day devoted to climate change adaptation. Monday will be spent on a range of issues including trade and labour mobility between provinces.