Prominent Canadian author Naomi Klein says Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s absence from Tuesday’s UN climate summit is just the latest event to demonstrate his government’s lack of interest in the environmental issues.

Activist groups have also opposed Harper’s policies on issues, such as oil and gas exploration in the Arctic and pipeline construction.

Klein, author of This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate, say Harper’s policies are all designed to increase growth, “whether it’s free trade, whether it’s the tar sands.”

“And that logic is what is at the heart of the climate crisis.,” she told CTV Question Period.

Klein criticized Harper’s support for pipelines and the oil sands and called for more investment in green alternatives.

“Each of those pipelines represents an expansion of production in the tar sands,” Klein said. “That is exactly the wrong direction if we want to take the climate science seriously.”

Conservatives defend climate record

Environment Minister Leona Aglukkaq, who will be traveling to the UN summit in Harper’s place, told the House of Commons on Friday that Canada “is the world leader when it comes to addressing climate change.”

Aglukkaq’s parliamentary secretary, Colin Carrie, said Sunday that the Conservative government has helped both the economy grow and emissions shrink.

“For the first time we’ve actually decoupled economic growth with greenhouse gases,” he said.

An Environment Canada 2013 report, titled Canada’s Emissions Trends, says greenhouse gas emissions decreased by 4.8 per cent between 2005 and 2011, while the economy grew by 8.4 per cent in that same time period.

But NDP environment critic Megan Leslie said the Conservatives are taking credit for improvements they had nothing to do with, and emissions went down because of the recession.

Leslie also accused the Conservatives of exaggerating the benefits of their coal regulations, citing a recent report comparing U.S. and Canadian regulations.

Economy before environment

Klein also criticized the opposition parties’ stances on the environment and economy.

“It seems that the price of admission for any politician who wants to be ‘taken seriously,’ quote un-quote, is to pick a pipeline and cheer for it,” she said.

Though both Liberal leader Justin Trudeau and NDP leader Thomas Mulcair have rejected the proposed Northern Gateway pipeline through British Columbia, they both support other projects.

Trudeau is in favour of the Keystone XL pipeline, which would bring oil from Canada into the United States. Thomas Mulcair supports a west-east pipeline that would transport bitumen to Atlantic Canada.

“This seems to be what the opposition leaders believe they have to do in order to signal to Bay Street that they’re serious about the economy,” Klein said.



Despite the apparent tension between economic growth and environmental sustainability, Klein said she thinks Canadians can have both.



“We can have a successful economy within the boundaries of our carbon budget,” Klein said. “Canadians overwhelmingly do care about climate change, and the major political parties are not offering them a real alternative.”