Stephen Harper’s Environmental Achievements

This article is part of EcoWorldly’s week-long spotlight on Politicians You Can Believe In. To read more, subscribe to our RSS feed, or view our posts about politics.

(Kittens make everything cuter.)

Stephen Harper, Conservative Party leader and newly re-elected Prime Minister of Canada, isn’t many people’s ideal of an environmental hero. He once famously called the Kyoto accord “job-killing, economy-destroying,” and a “socialist scheme.” Understandably, many Canadians look disapprovingly on his environmental record.

However, for a society to achieve sustainability it must have the support conservative leaders as well as liberal leaders, especially when a conservative leader like Harper begins to take interest in the environment. Over the last several years, the Harper government has been making efforts to turn over a new, greener leaf. Despite his continued foot-dragging on Kyoto emissions targets, Harper has been at the head of some important achievements.

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• The ecoEnergy Renewable Initiative (2007) set aside $1.5 billion (Canadian) for the development of renewable energy.
• Canada’s Clean Air Act (2006) was the first bill to implement nationwide standards on air pollutants and greenhouse gases. The act leaves something to be desired, but it was a significant legislative accomplishment.
• The National Marine Conservation Area (NMCA, 2007) established the world’s largest freshwater marine conservation area. The protected area includes over 10,000 square kilometers of Lake Superior. It should be noted that Harper did not spearhead this effort–it had been in the works for about a decade.
• Action Plan to Reduce Greenhouse Gases and Air Pollution (2007) strengthened energy efficiency, set a date to begin increasing fuel efficiency by 2011, established a market price for carbon, set up a carbon emissions trading market, and imposed industry targets of 150 megatonnes of greenhouse gas reductions by 2020.
• In 2008, the Harper government added to the above plan by banning the construction of “dirty coal” plants by 2012 and mandating carbon capture and storage at oil sands operations by the same year.

Nobody will argue that Harper’s commitment to environmental sustainability is as strong as Green Party Leader and longtime Sierra Club executive director, Elizabeth May’s. Harper’s green image also falls short of his chief political rival, Stéphane Dion, the Liberal Party leader who served as Minister of the Environment from 2004 to 2006.

Yet Harper’s turn-around from environmental do-nothing to green-hopeful should be an important take-home lesson: The government is ultimately responsive to popular will. If people make enough noise, an effective government will follow. Moreover, environmental successes are possible under both a conservative and a liberal government.

Image credit: Government of Canada, website.

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