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China, India, South Africa, South Korea, the Philippines and Japan, all signatories to the Paris climate accord, are in various stages of constructing a total of 1,800 coal-fired power plants. If Canada disappeared from the face of the Earth, those new plants would replace our emissions in a few short months.

There’s little doubt Greta’s visit also impacted the outcome of the federal election. Massive media coverage of her climate emergency message increased support for Trudeau’s national carbon tax, a task made easier by Andrew Scheer’s failure to clearly explain why the Conservative environmental policy would more effectively reduce global emissions. That shouldn’t have been difficult. Virtually all experts agree the carbon tax would have to be several times higher than planned to have any perceptible impact on global emissions. By contrast, the cornerstone of the Conservative environmental platform was recognition that Canadian natural gas exports could help halve poor-country emissions by switching their power plants from coal to natural gas. The industry hoped the government would push recognition of that reality at the recent Madrid climate conference but was, once again, disappointed.

Canada’s preoccupation with national rather than global emissions leads to myriad “local action” absurdities. The award for most ludicrous goes to Victoria City Council for its plan to spend $14 million installing shore power so cruise ships can shut off their generators while moored at city docks. Council clearly doesn’t understand that emissions caused by actually propelling the ships after they leave port are hundreds of times greater than their generators produce.