(The following article is from the January 1-15, 2010 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $45 US per year; other overseas readers - $45 US or $50 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St., Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)

PV Vancouver Bureau

     As this issue of People's Voice went to press on Dec. 15, a tentative truce between rich and poor nations has allowed talks to resume at the Copenhagen climate conference. The summit had appeared on the verge of collapse after developing nations walked out in protest over the failure of wealthy countries to commit to an extension of the Kyoto Protocol.

     The talks have emphasized what prominent Third World environmental activist Martin Khor calls "a gaping divide". On the one hand, developing nations want the wealthy to live up to the expectation they would cut emissions by 25-40 per cent by 2020, and to provide finance to help the poor. Meanwhile, many of the developed capitalist countries, including Canada, refuse to move unless the emerging economies take on a crippling share of the investments needed to give the world a chance at limiting warming to two degrees.

     "We have to face one reality - there is an ever widening gap between developing countries and developing countries," said Lumumba Di-Aping, the chief negotiator for the Group of 77 developing countries. "And the reason why that gap is widening is because developed countries have accepted that condemning Africa, condemning small island states, condemning small countries to destruction and massive suffering is something acceptable to them."

     At a basic level, the dispute is over the legal form of an agreement: whether to have just one treaty or two - the Kyoto Protocol and a second pact that covers all nations, including the US, China and India.

     The temporary breakdown between rich and poor came amid speculation that some of the world leaders scheduled to come to Copenhagen before the end of the scheduled talks might pull out failing clear signs of agreement.

     China had earlier appeared to offer a lifeline to the summit by saying it had abandoned its demand for funding from the developed world under a deal to cut greenhouse gas emissions. In the first major concession by a major player at the talks, Chinese vice-foreign minister He Yafei said financing from rich countries should be directed to poor countries.

     "Financial resources for the efforts of developing countries [to combat climate change are] a legal obligation," he told the media. "That does not mean China will take a share - probably not."

     Meanwhile, Canada's role at the Copenhagen summit has been dismal. In fact, Canada has been placed near the bottom of 57 countries in the "Climate Change Performance Index." The Index is based 50% on a country's emissions trends, 30% on its emissions level relative to population, and 20% on its national and international policies on climate change.

     Matthew Bramley, Director of the Pembina Institute's Climate Change Program, says that "Canada's performance is the worst in the industrialized world - a result of its high emissions, its lack of national policies capable of substantially cutting those emissions, and its unconstructive role to date in international negotiations. Among the world's major emitters, only Saudi Arabia is performing worse.

     "Minister Prentice committed earlier this year to come to Copenhagen with a `full suite of policies that relate to all major sources of emissions;' his decision not to fulfil that commitment is one reason why Canada has failed to improve over last year's ranking."

     It appears that Stephen Harper will be the only G-7 leader to arrive in Copenhagen without a major national program to support renewable power. New data from Natural Resources Canada reveal that the federal government's support for renewables will effectively end as of January 2010.

     The federal government has supported low-impact renewable energy development through the ecoENERGY for Renewable Power program since 2007. The initiative has helped to create clean energy and new jobs in every province, and has been important to fostering the growth of renewable power in Canada.

     The decision not to renew the ecoENERGY for Renewable Power program or something similar indicates that the federal government has no plans to provide any support to new renewable energy projects in 2010.

     "With almost 11,000 megawatts (MW) of projects in the queue for a program designed for 4,000 MW, it is pretty clear that the last few dollars have been spoken for," according to Tim Weis, Director of Renewable Energy and Efficiency Policy at the Pembina Institute. "At the current pace of growth, federal support for renewable power will effectively finish this month."

     There has been no signal that the Tory government intends to renew or strengthen its previous commitments to renewable power. In contrast, even the United States has outspent Canada on renewable energy by 14:1 (per capita) in their respective 2009 budgets.

     "With Canada's renewable industry on the cusp of a major growth spurt creating jobs while delivering long-term environmental benefits, it is a strange time for the federal government to walk away," said Steven Guilbeault from Equiterre. "This new federal data is yet another illustration of why Canada is lagging here in Copenhagen."

     "As reducing emissions becomes increasingly urgent, this government is choosing to subsidize pollution, rather than reduce it," Dave Martin from Greenpeace Canada added. "The tar sands continue to receive billions in subsidies from this government while renewables are left out in the cold."

     Canada has the potential to generate at least 20% of its electricity from the wind alone - a feat Denmark accomplished in the year 2000. Combined with other renewables such as biomass, small hydro and geothermal, renewable power needs to play a major part in delivering on the government's promise to achieve 90 per cent of Canada's electricity from non-emitting sources by 2020.