EPIC FAIL for Canada on WWF Climate Report Card

To the surprise of nobody who lives there, Canada has come in dead last on a climate report card prepared by the World Wildlife Foundation. The US is close behind, but at least is going in the right direction.

"Nowhere else on Earth do fewer people steward more resources, yet Canada now stands dead last among the G8 nations in protecting our shared home from the threat of dangerous climate change," said foundation spokesman Keith Stewart.

Canada gets smacked for:

-Very high emission rates per capita compared to the industrialized countries’ average despite high share of hydropower
-Among the few G8 countries with emissions still increasing
-Expanding energy-intensive non-conventional oil development (tar sands); neither
provincial nor planned federal regulation will reduce overall emissions
-No significant policy improvements since last year; earlier climate plan does not aim for compliance with Kyoto target and has not been implemented

The States get a pat on the head for meaning well and trying harder, but still fails.

-The new Obama administration has a very positive and encouraging attitude towards climate policies, plans for significant new policies and legislative initiatives are underway; projections were corrected downwards as a result of the agreed economic stimulus package.
-The new automobile standards have not yet been incorporated into the new projections
and would further reduce them.
-Country with the highest absolute emissions in the G8. Emission rates are among the highest in the world, strong dependence on coal and oil
-Kyoto protocol was not ratified and target is unattainable, national targets under discussion but are less ambitious in the short-term.

Germany comes out on top, although not without a few caveats.

-Significant reductions in emissions since 1990, partly due to economic downturn in Eastern Germany until 2000, but also due to national measures
-Successful promotion of new renewable energy sources
-No explicit national emission targets after 2020
-Electricity sector is coal dominated, risk of carbon lock-in due to planning of new unabated coal capacity
-No convincing strategy for low carbon transition in the transport sector

Read them all WWF