TYLER IRVING:  On Monday, a series of hoaxes perpetrated by the New-York based culture-jamming group the Yes Men shone a harsh and embarrassing light on Canada’s position at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

The hoax started with a fake press release from realistic mock-up of Environment Canada’s website. The press release announced a new initiative called Agenda 2020, which would lower Canada’s emission targets to 40% below 1990 levels by 2020, in line with what is recommended by the IPCC. That was followed by a second fake press release which denied the targets, but included links to more fake websites, including a story in a mock-up of the Wall Street Journal and a video purportedly released by the Ugandan delegation.

In an e-mail to media, a spokesperson for Environment Minister Jim Prentice suggested the hoax was the work of the environmental group Equiterre. Dmitri Soudas wrote that “more time should be dedicated to playing a constructive role instead of childish pranks.” For his part, the founder of Equiterre, Steven Guilbeault, denied that he had anything to do with the hoax and demanded an apology. This led to a heated between the two men when they met in a hallway at the conference.

Finally, by the end of the day, Yes Men member Mike Bonnano told the Associated Press that his group was responsible for the hoaxes. A press conference was held on Tuesday where it was revealed that they had help from some unnamed Canadian activists and a group called the Climate Debt Agents, led by a Ugandan student delegate. The Yes Men also held a Q-and-A session over twitter, moderated by the Associated Press. When asked by one user why they stopped now, the group’s cryptic reply was “Who says we’re stopping?” [ index ]

TYLER IRVING:  In the middle of the beating Canada is taking on the international stage, Prime Minister Stephen Harper will make his official visit to the Copenhagen talks today. As recently as last month, Harper had said that he would not attend the conference, but changed his mind when other world leaders, such as U.S. president Barack Obama, announced that they would be attending. Harper will meet with other world leaders and with members of Canada’s official delegation. No public events are planned.

All week, leaders from Canada’s lower levels of government have been undermining the federal position. On Wednesday, Quebec’s Premier, Jean Charest, said that while the federal government may have the power to agree to treaties, it can’t bind the provinces to them. Charest is co-chairing a meeting state, provincial, city, and other sub-national officials in Copenhagen. His comments were echoed, although less forcefully, by Nova Scotia premier Darrell Dexter. On Thursday, he was quoted in the Canadian Press as saying “We are looking to partner with the federal government in order to meet Canada’s goal, but the fact that Canada may not sign on to a protocol does not excuse the individual jurisdictions from taking appropriate action.”

At the city level, Toronto Mayor David Miller has also been speaking out against the federal government’s position. In Copenhagen to chair a meeting of the world’s 40 largest cities, he found the time to officially accept one of Canada’s many “Fossil of the Day” prizes, which are awarded by a group of 400 non-governmental organizations to countries that do their best to block progress on reaching an agreement. At the ceremony, he described himself as an “embarrassed Canadian” and said that while Canada may not be acting, Canadians are doing so through their cities.

The federal government is doing its best to avoid the negative publicity from comments like these. Last month, Environment Canada set up a war room to combat negative publicity arising from the Copenhagen conference. The augmented staff includes former Financial Post journalist, Deirdre McMurdy. [ index ]

LEEANNE MACGREGOR: A new report produced jointly by Canada and the U.S. shows a steady drop in water levels in the Great Lakes. The report determines that drier climatic conditions throughout North America are the chief reason behind a 20% drop in the quantity of water coming into Lakes Huron and Michigan in the last 60 years. Lake Erie lies lower and receives water from more northern lakes and so its levels have remained largely the same. A spokesperson for a Great Lakes monitoring group says that the upper Great Lakes region has experienced less ice in the wintertime and increased evaporation resulting in near drought-like conditions. The report states that overall warming of the region is responsible for the declining water levels. While the focus of global climate change in Canada is drawn to the arctic ice melt, the findings of the report indicate that a climate change strategy for the Great Lakes will be needed soon. [ index ]

TYLER IRVING:  Documents uncovered Tuesday by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation suggest that the federal government has seriously considered abandoning the targets it set out in the 2007 green plan.

The documents compare the green plan, known as “Turning the Corner,” with the American Clean Energy and Security Act, also known at the Waxman-Markey bill after its drafters. They point out that the American act provides special allowances for energy-intensive industries that are considered to be particularly vulnerable to international competition, including the oil and gas sector. As the most energy-intensive oil production operation on the planet, Canada’s oil sands could be at an economic disadvantage if tough targets are imposed. According to the CBC the papers recommend lowering the reduction targets for that sector to 15 megatonnes, rather than the 48 megatonnes currently outlined in “Turning the Corner.”

Sought for comment in Copenhagen, Environment Minister Jim Prentice did not deny the existence or validity of the documents, which were prepared for cabinet ahead of the climate summit. Although he said he had not seen them, he would not rule out special treatment for the oil and gas sector as part of a new green plan. Such exemptions would enrage environmentalists, who have already made their displeasure with Canada’s position known at the international climate conference. However, they are being welcomed by one group; earlier this week, the president of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers told the Globe and Mail that “we need to make sure that climate policy doesn’t disadvantage the oil industry in terms of competitiveness.” [ index ]

TYLER IRVING:  On Monday, the province of Alberta lifted a moratorium on the planning of new nuclear power plants. Energy Minister Mel Knight made the announcement at the same time as releasing the results of a poll conducted as part of the province’s public consultation process. In a telephone survey of 1024 citizens conducted by Innovative Research Group, 45% of respondents said that they wanted new nuclear power plants considered on a case-by-case basis. Knight said that is exactly what the government plans to do, but added that no public money is being considered for the projects.

While there are currently no nuclear power plants in western Canada, the Ontario-based company Bruce Power has expressed interest in constructing a plant in the Peace River area. If approved, the project could cost as much as $10 billion and take up to 9 years to construct. The company’s CEO said the move was good for the industry.

Many environmental groups in Alberta oppose nuclear generation, including the Coalition for a Nuclear Free Alberta and Citizens Advocating the Use of Sustainable Energy (CAUSE). While these groups are very disappointed in the Alberta government’s positions, other NGOs, such as the Sierra Club and Greenpeace, see the lack of public money as a deal-breaker for any actual project. The Sierra Club’s Lindsay Telfer said that withholding public money “hits the final nail in the nuclear energy coffin for the province.” [ index ]

LEEANNE MACGREGOR:  Toronto city councillors approved a bill last week that will tax the use of billboards within city limits. The driving forces behind the move to tax billboards were to compensate the urban environment for the visual strain caused by private advertising, to democratize urban public space, and to promote a pedestrian friendly aesthetic in the city. The 11 million dollars generated by the billboard tax was originally supposed to be earmarked for the promotion and support of arts initiatives in Toronto. When the city’s budget is discussed in the New Year, the funds will be officially designated. A large majority of city councillors support the allocation of billboard taxes to arts spending. The watchdog group that will be lobbying for arts spending with the tax, BeautifulCities.ca, says that billboards were one of the last advertising agents allowed to use the public environment without having to give anything back to the community. Other rules of conduct for billboard users are also now enforced; there are requirements for the distances between billboards and the type of electronic signs permitted in certain parts of the city. The bylaw has been heralded as one of the world’s first effective bylaws targeting illegal, or un-taxed, billboards in public space.  [ index ]

LEEANNE MACGREGOR:  A new report from the Environmental Protection Agency shows that the quality of drinking water in the US could be dangerous to human health. Under the Safe Drinking Water Act, only 91 contaminants are listed along with their presumably safe content in drinking water. Meanwhile, over 60, 000 chemicals are used in the US. No chemicals have been added to the list of risky drinking water contaminants since 2000. That’s because the laws regulating tap water are over 35 years old. The laws simply are not comprehensive enough to force every new chemical to be verified for its compatibility with human drinking water. Complicating matters, chemicals that were proven safe for humans in large doses are now proving to be very harmful in minute amounts, and the reverse is also true. The EPA says that information about chemicals and how they interact with human biology is constantly changing and the current laws are neither stringent nor flexible enough to protect citizens from harmful chemical contamination. Presently it is up to individual municipalities and states to go above and beyond the federal tap water laws, but only if they choose to. [ index ]

LEEANNE MACGREGOR: Japanese whaling ships clashed this week with anti-whaling organization, Sea Shepherd, in the Southern Ocean between Antarctica and Australia. Every year since the international agreement that banned whale hunts, Japan has exploited a loophole in their text which allows for the use of lethal force in the task of researching whales. Whale meat is traditionally consumed in Japan, however many countries feel it is a breech of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species. According to the wording in the International Agreement, Japan is allowed to kill up to 1000 minke whales, 50 endangered fin whales, and 50 humpback whales annually for the purpose of research. Consequently, every year, the hardline anti-whaling activist group, Sea Shepherd, has confronted whaling fleets on the open ocean to put their ship between the harpoons and the whales. The tactics used by Sea Shepherd typically cause weeks of delays for whaling fleets and in some cases damage to the ships. This year the Japanese whaling companies have entered the Southern Ocean with military escort ships and military air surveillance. New Zealand and Australia have responded to the militarization of Japan’s whaling fleet by condemned the violence at sea from both whaling vessels and protestors; they are very slowly pursuing an end to the whale hunt through the diplomatic process of the International Whaling Commission. [ index ]

LEEANNE MACGREGOR: Climate talks this week responded to demands by developing nations for global warming compensation funds. Twenty seven European Union nations have agreed to spend 10 billion dollars on climate change relief in poorer countries over the next three years. Following the announcement, Japan pledged 15 billion in short-term relief. The pledges will be effective only if a comprehensive climate deal is achieved in Copenhagen. Meanwhile, the US announced its backing of a deal that would see developed countries raising 100 billion dollars in annual climate aid by the year 2020. The Swedish government has admitted that the funds it is willing to contribute would be partially a re-packaging of money already allocated for aid. It is suspected that other countries giving aid are doing the same. Both proposals fall far short of what the United Nations and the G-77 group of developing, poor and emerging nations call which is for 400 billion dollars in aid by 2020. While the deals proposed by rich nations are a disappointment, some poorer countries are feeling the pressure to accept a deal before it is taken off the table at the end of the talks. In taking the aid, however, countries would be agreeing to a list of requirements set by the UK, the US, and other developed nations, primarily to kill the Kyoto accord which exempts poor nations from making emissions reductions. Poor countries accepting this deal would have to allow measurement, reporting and verification of emissions curbs. [ index ]

LEEANNE MACGREGOR:  A UN report was leaked yesterday showing that the current pledges made by individual countries add up to produce an average temperature increase of 3 degrees Celsius higher than pre-industrial levels. Until this report, countries were publically aiming to make emissions reductions to limit global temperature change to no greater than 2 degrees average. The leaked document is a culmination of a week of negotiations to set a global limit on temperature increase. 102 of the world’s poorest countries, including some members of the Group of 77, the African bloc and the Alliance of Small Island States, have been holding out for a commitment to emissions cuts that would result in a 1.5 degree increase. Developing and poor nations are being accused of causing a stalemate at the Copenhagen talks. On Tuesday, France and Ethiopia announced their joint proposal to adopt the developed world’s agreement that would see temperature rise halt at 2 degrees. The move by Ethiopian Prime Minister, Meles Zenawi, to accept the proposal has been praised by the US as cooperative while members of the G-77 have accused Zenawi of selling the African bloc short. A global average temperature rise of 2 degrees has drastic implications for the African continent where temperatures will rise by 3-4 degrees. The difference between a 2 and a 3 degree rise is that 170 million more people in coastal regions will suffer floods and 550 million more worldwide will be at risk of hunger. South Pacific Islands like Maldives and Vanuatu, which have 80% of their land mass near sea level, could disappear completely with an average 3 degree temperature increase. The leaked UN document states that bigger cuts to developed countries emissions were, quote, “possible and necessary”. [ index ]