Report documents coordinated Canadian efforts to disrupt climate & clean energy policy in US, EU
Access to Information requests by the Climate Action Network have revealed that elements within the governments of Canada and Alberta attempted to undermined clean energy and climate policy in California, the United States and Europe.
Much of the information compiles existing public statements, speeches and policies by federal and provincial politicians and civil servants in a way that identifies a pattern of deliberate and coordinated disruption of climate and energy policy agendas in friendly, foreign jurisdictions.
“We have proof that the Harper government is aggressively intervening in Europe and the United States to kill clean energy policies in the name of promoting the tar sands,” says Graham Saul of Climate Action Network Canada. “Canada is not just exporting dirty oil anymore - we're also exporting dirty policies.”
The report documents extensive evidence of federal and Alberta government lobbying efforts against clean energy policies proposed in three jurisdictions: California, the United States and Europe. Documents obtained through Access to Information also point to a broad-based and secretive “Oil Sands Advocacy Strategy” led by the Department of Foreign Affairs.
The press release also notes that Greenpeace has set up a tip line for federal civil servants -- essentially, a "Climate Crime Stoppers" line. Keith Stewart of Greenpeace Canada says it has been set up for "federal civil servants who are frustrated with the oil industry calling the shots on Canada's energy and climate policy and want to help us separate oil and state.”
The line is being advertised in the national political elite newspaper The Hill Times and will be promoted throughout 2011.
The release continues:
“A friendly neighbor does not secretly try to undermine your clean energy jobs and efforts to fight climate change,” says Susan Casey-Lefkowitz of the Washington D.C.-based Natural Resources Defense Council. “The greed for tar sands oil is not only harming the Boreal forest - it is harming the North American clean energy future.”
“We are calling on the governments of Canada and Alberta to stop all efforts to kill clean energy and climate policy in other countries,” says Steven Guilbeault of Équiterre. “This is an outrage, it is a reckless approach to energy policy that needs to be brought to an end.
The full report, in PDF, is available here.
