Just days after World Water Day, the Canadian government quietly acknowledged last week that it had dropped out of the United Nations anti-drought convention. The move reportedly makes Canada the only nation in the world not party to United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification, or Unccd.
The transcript of the exchange can be read here.
Despite the ruling Conservative government’s claim that it had opted out because too little of its contribution was going toward actual anti-drought programming — branding the U.N. convention a “talkfest” in the process — many critics were quick to say the move fits a patten of a conservative party that has opposed environmental regulation.
“It’s just another step Canada moves away from protecting the environment and towards the oil industry,” said John Bennett, executive director of Sierra Club Canada.
The pullout became public during the official question period in Parliament on Thursday, just before the long Easter weekend break.
“The Conservatives are doing tremendous damage to our international reputation,” said Paul Dewar, an M.P. from the New Democratic Party, the official opposition, during the question period.
The reaction to the news in Canada, where many fear the government of Prime Minster Stephen J. Harper is undoing Canada’s reputation for both environmentalism and international cooperation, was as swift as it was damming.
Elizabeth May, leader of Canada’s federal Green Party, compared Canada to North Korea when it comes to environmental law:
So upset Harper pulled us out of another global env treaty. He’s making us a rogue nation. The North Korea of environmental law.#cdnpoIi
— Elizabeth May MP (@ElizabethMay) March 28, 2013
“Canada pulling out of the UN Convention on drought is part of a worrisome trend,” wrote Josh Laughren, director of the Climate and Energy Program at WWF-Canada in an email.
But the withdrawal from the Kyoto agreement, muzzling of federal scientists, the funding cuts to the National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy and a focus on oil and gas exploration are more hotly debated among environmentalists.
“Under the government of Prime Minister Harper there has been a steady erosion of Canada’s contribution to solving global environmental issues like climate change, coupled with sweeping changes that have weakened domestic environmental legislation,” wrote Mr. Laughren.
As we reported on Rendezvous last year, Canada was awarded the Fossil of the Year award by climate activists at the Doha summit meeting.
Canada’s current government is seen as industry-friendly and a strong advocate of oil exploration. While it says it recognizes environmental problems, it has taken the position that industry will find ways to innovate to become greener and that government regulations and new international agreements will replace existing treaties.
Prime Minster Harpercalled the Kyoto Protocol a thing of the past and suggested that as long as China and the United States — the word’s biggest polluters — were not limited by the treaty, Canada’s competitiveness would be hurt by being a part of that framework.
While some Canadians see environmental carelessness in the decision to opt out of the global anti-drought convention, others suspect the government has more sinister motives. The Unccd itself says that 60 percent of Canadian crops are grown in dry areas.
And Maude Barlow, the national chairperson of the Council of Canadians, a social justice organization, asked in a statement, “Is Harper pulling out of this treaty in the hope that doing so removes a key international legal instrument at a time when First Nations are increasingly challenging the legal legitimacy of his government’s legislation, especially in relation to tar sands, mining, and omnibus legislation?”
Canada had supported the Unccd since 1995, and was once seen as one of its strong supporters. Canada’s yearly contribution of roughly 290,000 Canadian dollars (roughly the same in U.S. currency) represents a little more than three percent of the convention’s annual budget.
A statement on the Unccd Web site read, “The Convention is stronger than ever before, which makes Canada’s decision to withdraw from the Convention all the more regrettable.”