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NWT officials view climate change as threat to Arctic resource development Antoine says there is clear evidence of warming in the Northwest Territories; warns if trend continues, oil and gas development, gasline work could be slowed Gary Park PNA Canadian Correspondent
The Northwest Territories government opposes Canadian ratification of the Kyoto Protocol, but insists some action must be taken to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to reverse the devastating impact of global warming.
Resources and Economic Development Minister Jim Antoine said the people of the Canadian Arctic “can actually see what’s happening with global warming (and) Canada has to come up with a plan to deal with this.”
In Calgary for the recent annual meeting of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, Antoine said there is clear evidence in the Northwest Territories of warmer winters, hotter summers and melting of permafrost.
If the trend continues oil and gas development in the Mackenzie Delta and construction of a proposed gas pipeline along the Mackenzie River Valley could be slowed, he warned.
Antoine said winter ice roads that once allowed trucks to deliver equipment and supplies to remote exploration sites for three months of the winter are now open for only one month. Strategy needed Whether or not Kyoto is implemented, the Canadian and provincial governments must develop a strategy to lower greenhouse emissions, which some scientists blame for global warming, he said.
“Something has to be done,” he said. “Up to this point Kyoto has been the vehicle, but the United States backed out and subsequently Alberta, Ontario and British Columbia have jumped off the ship.
“Whatever kind of strategic plan the (federal) government comes up with, we will support.”
Northwest Territories Premier Stephen Kakfwi, also in Calgary for the conference, agreed with Alberta Premier Ralph Klein and British Columbia Premier Gordon Campbell that Canada should not ratify Kyoto without a full accounting of the economic costs. Kyoto doomed Kakfwi said Kyoto is doomed to “falter,” even though he defends the science of global warming.
“Climate change is already a reality ... however, the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is a global imperative and Canada has to coordinate its actions with the world,” he said.
Campbell said Kyoto has “become a label without any substance. The federal government should not sign the agreement without knowing what it means.”
Klein, consistently the strongest voice against Kyoto, called for a reexamination of the Kyoto targets to lower 1990 levels of gas emissions by 6 percent by 2012. “Let’s put politics aside. All the concerns have to be taken into account in a reasonable fashion,” he said.
With the Canadian government increasingly grappling with the direction it should take and more senior cabinet ministers expressing their misgivings, Klein suggested the government is finally “coming to its sense.” Alberta backing off To that end, he said the Alberta government has backed away from a threatened constitutional fight with the federal government to uphold provincial control over natural resources.
He said Canada should work with the petroleum industry and the United States to develop a “North American solution” to climate change or find a “made-in-Canada solution” that would not cripple the economy by making the cost of oil and gas exported to the United States prohibitive.
In recent weeks, Natural Resources Minister Herb Dhaliwal, Industry Minister Allan Rock, Finance Minister Paul Martin and Trade Minister Pierre Pettigrew have all joined a chorus of doubt within cabinet.
Pettigrew said on April 17 that Canada would only be in a position to ratify Kyoto if it could obtain credits for exporting “clean” energy, such as natural gas and hydroelectric power, to the U.S. — a proposal that was rebuffed three days earlier by European Union environment ministers. Chretien wavers Prime Minister Jean Chretien, for the first time wavered on his earlier pledges to ratify Kyoto this year. He said the “goal (of the government) is to implement Kyoto eventually, when we are ready, and we are not ready today.
“We have asked for credits,” he said. “It is a very important things for us. It is one of the requirements we have put on the table and we have to keep arguing for that.”
However, the European Union’s Environment Commissioner Margot Wallstrom said flatly it was “too late to reopen the Kyoto Protocol to help Canada. We will not accept that Canada now says ‘We want even more.’ That road is closed.”
Canada’s Environment Minister David Anderson said he will continue to lobby for an international system of “clean” energy credits. “There’s no question that this issue becomes more critical for Canada because of the U.S. withdrawal from the Kyoto process,” he said.
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