More on climate change

Dear Editor,

Once again John Peate’s letter on climate change is marked by half truths and outright misleading statements concerning both carbon taxes and climate change. My thoughts in point form are as follows:

1. To say that solutions are not “forced” by the UN is simply misleading. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a UN agency has specifically endorsed the use of carbon pricing as a means of reducing emissions.  The Secretary General of the UN spoke out in support of carbon taxes just prior to the recent Australian federal election in an attempt to influence the outcome. Fortunately the Australian electorate sent a clear message against any form of carbon pricing. As for the UN only reporting on the science of climate change, they are very good at promoting hysteria and not much on science.

1.  Contrary to Mr. Peate’s claim the Paris Accord does support the use of carbon pricing and a  “linkage” between countries to join in carbon pricing projects to help stop carbon leakage between national jurisdictions. This provision was demonstrated with the carbon market scheme hatched by California, Quebec and Ontario before the Ford government wisely took Ontario out of this scam. That provision also means that countries can join together to punish other countries who fail to price carbon. Aside from some discussions by the European Parliament to take steps against other countries no jurisdiction has attempted this.

1. Carbon taxes have not been successful around the word as Peate claims and have lead to widespread energy poverty in the European Union and else where. World wide carbon emissions have grown by about four per cent since 2015 and have sky rocketed in countries like China and India. Even the gold standard of carbon pricing, the BC carbon tax,  has failed to reduce carbon emissions in that province and is no longer revenue neutral.

1. Peate and the Trudeau government are dreaming if they really think that a carbon tax rebate which averages $300 dollars a year will really cover all the costs for consumers associated with a carbon tax.
   

1. Again, Peate is misleading the reader by claiming that the federal government gains nothing from the carbon tax. The Parliamentary Budget Officer estimates that the Trudeau government will receive approximately $500 million in tax revenue from the HST charged on top of the carbon tax. That is half a billion dollars just from the four provinces where the Trudeau government has imposed their carbon tax. The good reader should not be naive to think that the carbon tax rebates will continue under subsequent federal governments.

1. Measuring Green House Gas (GHG) emissions on a per capita basis is dependant on which study you choose to accept. The World Bank ranks Canada third on the per capita measurement while the National Climate Change Directorate ranks us 13^th in the world and the Union of Concerned Scientists ranks us ninth. To simply state that Canada is a “top bad actor” with respect to GHG emissions is not supported by any actually evidence.

Carbon pricing  has done little to reduce GHG’s emissions either in Canada or the world and, despite the nonsense to the contrary, has very little direct impact on climate change. The demand for carbon-based fuels has grown substantially over the past 10 years as more counties in the third world grow their economies and  lift their people out of poverty.

Curt Shalapata