The Ontario government is losing the battle against the costly ravages of climate change, environmental commissioner Gord Miller says in a damning annual report.

The veteran commissioner said other than closing coal-fired power plants — which the government has trumpeted for years — “very little has been achieved . . . in fact, we have gone backwards.”

“We have really achieved nothing beyond the coal closures . . . and that’s the point.”

Miller said the provincial government’s decision to stop releasing an annual progress report on climate change speaks volumes given that it appears Ontario will come nowhere near meeting its 2020 target to reduce greenhouse gases.

The report — Looking for Leadership, the Cost of Climate Inaction — “reflects the urgency of the issue and the lack of attention climate change has received in the province in recent years,” Miller told a news conference at Queen’s Park on Wednesday.

Miller said climate change is real, it is very costly and it is up to the province to stop being “naive” about the serious weather-related consequences.

He said instead of continually talking about closing coal-fired plants, the province should have been looking at such measures as electrifying transit and putting a plan together to price carbon.

“Let’s look at the most egregious thing. We just came through a process of producing a long-term energy plan . . . that projects how we are going to generate electricity out 20 or 30 years and there was no consideration of greenhouses gases or no price of carbon considered in those decisions,” he told reporters.

Miller said the Liberal government significantly failed to slash emissions from cars and trucks as promised and “I have been given no reason why.”

Minutes earlier Glen Murray, the new minister responsible for the environment and climate change, and Premier Kathleen Wynne held a news conference to say the Liberal government was going to bring in a law prohibiting the use of coal to produce power and that the province would meets its 2020 target.

“We know there is more to be done but if the next biggest challenge for us is the 29 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions that come from vehicular traffic, obviously our initiatives on transit and transportation infrastructure are critical,” Wynne said.

And Murray argued that increasing the GO train service to every 30 minutes has contributed to reducing green houses gases by getting more people out of their cars.

The minister also said closing the five coal-fired power plants was equal to taking seven million vehicles off the province’s roads when it comes to cutting greenhouse gases.

Miller said the fact remains that Ontario has lost the leadership position it once had in fighting greenhouse gases, pointing to British Columbia, which has a carbon tax, and to Quebec with its cap-and-trade system for carbon credits.

The environmental commissioner said the province’s plan from 2007 is “now irrelevant,” but added he was encouraged to see that Murray has taken on the dual responsibilities of the environment and climate change.

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“This appears to be an overdue call to arms by the government to address the pressing policy needs raised by the reality we face,” he said.

Murray conceded later it is time to stop applauding the coal plant closures “and move on” and he says that includes the electrification of the Milton/Georgetown and Lakeshore GO train lines in the next three years, improving building codes and planning.

NDP Leader Andrea Horwath said the environmental commissioner’s critical climate change report underscores the problem of a “government that talks a good game.”

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