Environment

4 former Canadian PMs join call for climate change action

by Amy Judd | September 9, 2008 at 11:39 am

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Four former Canadian prime ministers have joined a coalition today to demand urgent climate action on climate change.

This is an important step ahead of a Canadian election, especially after Harper pulled out of the Kyoto agreement, which angered many Canadians as environmental issues are high on the list of important factors to consider when voting next month.

The group of about 60 business people, academics and environmentalists calling themselves Canadians for Climate Leadership is set to release a document Tuesday entitled Time To Get Serious on Climate Change.

The report calls for a $30-a-tonne price tag on emissions, and says a "staggering" investment in green technologies is required.

The document has been signed by four former prime ministers, Joe Clark and Kim Campbell, both Progressive Conservatives, and Liberals Paul Martin and John Turner.

"We simply can't afford another round of posturing and denial in this next election," said Clark in a news release Monday.

"Climate change shouldn't be dealt with as a political football," Nova Scotia businessman John Roy, who helped draft the report, told CBC news.

The report stops short of endorsing the Liberals' Green Shift carbon plan, which would offset a tax on emissions with income tax cuts, but Roy said funds generated by an emissions tax must be redistributed to those who would be hit the hardest.