Harper says "very comfortable" with being led by the US

on the world stage.

After the United States hammered out an agreement with 19 other major powers at an emergency meeting in Copenhagen to which Canada was not invited, Harper said Canada had been represented by the U.S. and "a group of close allies" :

"What will be most critical for Canada in terms of filling out the details of our regulatory framework will be the regulatory framework being developed in the United States.
The nature of the Canadian economy and the nature of our integrated energy markets is such that Canada and the United States need to be closely harmonized on this.
If the Americans don’t act, it will severely limit our ability to act. But if Americans do act, it is absolutely essential that we act in concert with them."

This was Harper's first public statement at the conference. Previously Environment Minister Jim Prentice made a 3 minute speech in the middle of the night which did not mention targets.

Harper's promise to put Canada back on the world stage ...

After winning eight Fossil of the Day awards over two weeks at Copenhagen, Canada capped it off by getting the grand Colossal Fossil of the Year Award for being the worst-performing country at the talks and the "the country which has done the most day after day to prevent a climate treaty."

Canada repeatedly blocked progress on setting tough targets and committing to international financing for developing countries.

While industrialized countries as a group must establish targets 25-40% below 1990 levels according to climate scientists, Canada's greenhouse gas emission reduction targets are the equivalent to 3% below 1990 levels by the year 2020 and even that is apparently negotiable.

So now we'll just have to wait and see what the US wants Harper to do.
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A picture is worth ... in this case only about five words

and those five words are "I gotta change the story", spoken by Environment Minister Jim Prentice's chief of staff Steve Kelly.

Seems Jim's press people "distributed a release for a photo-op of U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu and Prentice" but the US delegation wasn't having any of it.

Toby Heaps : U.S. snubs Canada

"Over the course of 10 minutes, Kelly repeatedly asked the U.S. delegation official to reconsider, to which the U.S. delegation official replied, negative.
When Kelly asked for this to be taken up the chain of command, the U.S. delegation official replied "it came from pretty high up. It's not going to happen."

The U.S. official said he didn't understand why the photograph was so important, to which Kelly replied "we were carpetbagged this morning by (environmental non-governmental organizations) with a false press release, I gotta change the story."

So much for Jim's airy dismissal of The Yes Men hoax.

But no big photo op transpired for Jim. Instead a staffer snapped the one above - a picture of a snub, distinctly lacking in the symbols of happy handshaking against a backdrop of COP15 logos.

And this even after Steve announced that given the integration of Canada's economy with that of the US, there was really not much point in Canada having an independent environmental position of our own.

Heaps : "It makes you wonder when the U.S. Secretary of Energy is embarrassed to have a public photograph taken with the Canadian Minister of the Environment."

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Canada punk'd at COP15

This is classic Yes Men, who have been gaily twittering about the prank without actually, um, copping to it.

First there was this morning's grand announcement from Environment Minister Jim Prentice of Canada's "ambitious plan for a new climate change framework that answers vital concerns voiced by developing nations" and the "strict new emissions-reductions guidelines for Canada" along with generous "financing for vulnerable countries beginning in 2010."
Except it wasn't true.

Neither was the article covering the press release in the credible-looking but not really WSJ.
Nor the follow-up press release from Environment Canada deploring the prank :

"OTTAWA, Ont. -- December 14, 2009 -- One hour ago, a spoof press release targeted Canada in order to generate hurtful rumors and mislead the Conference of Parties on Canada's positions on climate change, and to damage Canada's standing with the international business community.

The Canadian government wishes to note that in addition to misleading the world on Canada's energy stance, today's impostors generated a cascading series of hopes that culminated in the delivery, by the Ugandan delegation, of an impassioned speech in today's COP-15 press briefing. "

"Hurtful rumours" Heh.
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And about that "impassioned speech" by the Ugandan delegate at COP15 seen on video here :

The Ugandan delegation convened a press event shortly after the surprise Canadian announcement, in a breakthrough moment for a summit marked until now largely by gridlock. Delegates, NGO representatives and members of the press crowded the room to listen to the impromptu address, although delegates from the United States, the UK and China were largely absent.

"This is the day that will define our century," said Margaret Matembe, MP and member of the Climate Committee of Uganda. "Today, we no longer have to wait for a COP20 or COP100 before the voices of our children are heard."

... I can't find "Margaret Matembe, MP and member of the Climate Committee of Uganda" on Google.

Classic Yes Men.
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Also ... Kady ... ACR ... and Rusty Idols who called it first.
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Update : CBC : Who's behind the hoax?

"A second fake press release pointed us to www.ec-gc.ca which is a whole lot closer to the real deal www.ec.gc.ca but still not legit.That site is reportedly registered to the Friends of Science Commission. The phone number worked, but reached a very annoyed woman who was definitely NOT associated with the group.
Friends of Science DOES exist. It's an organization that believes climate change does not exist ...".

Heh. A Friends of Science link - excellent!
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Harper Says Global Recovery Must Precede Environment

Dec. 7 (Bloomberg) -- Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said he will use Canada’s co-chairmanship of next year’s Group of 20 countries meeting to urge members to put economic recovery before efforts to protect the environment.

"Without the wealth that comes from growth, the environmental threats, the developmental challenges and the peace and security issues facing the world will be exponentially more difficult to deal with," Harper said in an address to South Korea’s National Assembly.

Fuck the planet! Go, tarsands, go! he did not need to add, as he left for the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen.

This must be what CannedWest Ian MacDonald meant yesterday when he referred to Harper as "magisterial" and described how he "has assumed the mantle as well as the office."
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Greenpeace occupies Parliament roofs

On the opening day of COP15, Greenpeace activists scale Parliament buildings and hang two 12 x 7 meter banners : "Harper/Ignatieff - Climate inaction costs lives."

Media mostly goes with the security angle : How dey do dat? and "Since 9/11 ..."

Greenpeace covers their own story here.

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Canada is to climate what Japan is to whaling

Interview with George Monbiot.

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