Disinformation About Canada's Strong Leadership on Climate Action
At the opening of the 77th session of the United Nations General Assembly, Prime Minister Trudeau is said to have "highlighted Canada's strong leadership on climate action and the global biodiversity crisis ahead of the 15th Conference of the Parties (COP15) to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity taking place in Montreal this December." The information posted states that Trudeau "made a call to action for renewed commitments from leaders for an ambitious post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework, in particular to address the financing gap for nature."
Trudeau also "announced $10 million in funding over four years for the Climate Risk and Early Warning Systems (CREWS) initiative to improve emergency preparedness in developing countries, particularly the small island developing states." The specialized CREWS is a multi-million dollar project delivered through the World Meteorological Organization based in Geneva, Switzerland. Its stated aim is to provide countries with early weather warnings and risk information. This project is involved in providing such services in 44 Least Developed Countries and Small Island Developing States. It is funded by private sector, civil society and governments.
This is yet another project used by the U.S., Canada and former colonial powers to claim they are helping the economies of poorer countries, in spite of all evidence to the contrary as seen, for example, in the U.S. treatment of natural disasters in Puerto Rico and islands of the Caribbean.
Trudeau also announced that Canada will join the Forests and Climate Leaders' Partnership. This is a scheme the British government launched at COP26, the UN Climate Change Conference held in Glasgow in November 2021. At the UNGA on September 21, COP26 President and British Conservative MP Alok Sharma called on "world leaders to join the launch of the Forests and Climate Leaders' Partnership at COP27, to scale up action to protect, conserve and restore the world's forests while delivering sustainable development and promoting an inclusive rural transformation."
The failure of the federal government to protect Canada's forests and create a sustainable forestry industry underscores the posturing going on at the UN. As if the link of forests to climate is just a matter of planting trees, not the relations between humans and humans and humans and nature which reveal the need for people's empowerment, Trudeau said: "There is no path to fighting climate change and building a healthy future that does not involve forests. At home, Canada is working in partnership with Indigenous communities, while taking historic steps like our commitment to plant 2 billion trees over the coming decade. To bring this work to the world stage, we are pleased to be joining the Forests and Climate Leaders' Partnership (FCLP). Together, we can maximize the role of forests in the fight against climate change and in our shared work to build a bright future."
No mention of trampling underfoot the hereditary rights of the Indigenous peoples on their territories or that "working in partnership with Indigenous communities" is a euphemism to cover up that the "partners" are the band councils which are pushing private interests and do not represent the hereditary chiefs. The FCLP is another pay-the-rich scheme to enable private interests to lay claim to the forest resources of the world's people including here in Canada, in the name of forest conservation and the green economy.
The "working in partnership with Indigenous communities" and "commitment to plant 2 billion trees over the coming decade" that Prime Minister Trudeau touted at the UNGA was not lost on the youth and the thousands of Canadians who marched for climate justice on Global Climate Strike Day, September 23. One of the main focuses of the action was to denounce Trudeau and his government for lack of action to protect the natural environment and for criminalizing Indigenous people who are in the forefront of protecting Mother Earth.
The wrecking of the forest industry in Canada which contributed to the recent flooding in BC, the criminalization and targeting of Indigenous people and environmental activists defending the irreplaceable old growth forests on unceded Indigenous lands, the projects to extract critical minerals for the U.S. war machine from the "Ring of Fire" on Indigenous land in Ontario which will cause massive environmental damage in the James Bay lowlands, and pushing through the Coastal GasLink Pipeline on Wet'suwet'en sovereign territory all give the lie to the Trudeau government's claims and actions at the UNGA and show who these actions serve. They deserve nothing but contempt.
(With files from COP26, Prime Minister's Office.)
This article was published in
Volume 52 Number 8 - November 2022
Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/Tmlm2022/Articles/MS520812.HTM
Website: www.cpcml.ca Email: editor@cpcml.ca