This morning’s headlines show Canada “increasingly isolated” as global climate negotiations open in Lima, Peru, while India has an opportunity—and ample good reason—to leapfrog many of the mistakes that built the original high-carbon economies.
CBC reports that the recent United States-China climate deal “cranks up the international pressure on Canada” to control its rampaging greenhouse gas emissions, with some voices critiquing Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s fallback position—that Canada will only shift its emissions in lockstep with the United States.
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Recent developments on the international scene “make Harper look increasingly isolated,” said Simon Dalby of the Balsillie School of International Affairs in Waterloo, Ontario. By favouring tar sands/oil sands over any other energy form, “we’re getting left behind badly in energy development.”
iPolitics, meanwhile, is carrying a Bloomberg News analysis showing how India can benefit from aggressive emission standards as it goes into a period of rapid development.
“According to one government estimate, some 70% of India’s buildings in 2030 will have been constructed after 2011,” Bloomberg notes. “Enforcing strict green building codes now, and providing financial and tax incentives to comply, would limit the carbon intensity of India’s growth and, at the same time, improve its air quality and help businesses save money.”
