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There are lots of bad arguments against the federal carbon pricing plan. Some of them were the subject of my last column: that it’s a tax grab (so cut other taxes), that it hits the poor hardest (so compensate them for any extra expense) and so on.

There is one, however, that deserves a fuller answer. It is this: Canada does not matter. We account for just 1.6 per cent of the world’s annual emissions of greenhouse gases. Yes, that still puts us in the world’s top 10 emitters; in the top three, per capita.

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But in terms of our contribution to total global emissions, we are insignificant. Even on a cumulative basis, going back to 1850, we still come in under two per cent. We didn’t cause this problem, and we certainly aren’t going to stop it. The 30 per cent of emissions we have pledged to eliminate by 2030 is about as much as China belches out in a week.

To accept this evident fact does not imply skepticism about the problem of global warming, nor the necessity of taking action against it — as a planet. It only suggests that Canada’s part in this drama is somewhat less than pivotal. This is a point worth making: those urging that Canada reduce its own emissions often speak as if the fate of the world depended upon it. It does not. For that matter, neither does Canada’s. Whatever we do or do not do, it will have very little impact on global warming; and whatever global warming’s impact on Canada there is little we ourselves can do to avert it. It is not even clear the world can.