May day - Kyoto in trouble

In case Elizabeth May's past misrepresentations about Jack Layton haven't affected some observers' belief that May can be considered a credible alternative to political as usual, May showed today that she'd rather be embarrassed in a climate change debate than say anything positive about the NDP or other parties:

If he's serious, May said, Baird will push the government to meet the Kyoto targets.

"We have an international treaty to which we are legally bound. And so far, since the Harper government came to power, we have become an international pariah. ... We are the only Kyoto party at this point that said we are not going to try. Now that's really a stunning thing for a country like Canada to do.

"We can meet Kyoto targets but it will be very difficult," she said.

May didn't give details about what concrete steps Canada could take to meet the targets, however.

Now, it speaks poorly enough for May that neither she nor her party has anything approaching a plan to deal with their signature issue. And that sadly doesn't seem to be anything new, as the Greens' 2006 platform was embarrassingly light on details.

But let's leave aside the question of whether the Greens have a plan of their own to offer. In the interest of defending Canada's ability to meet the Kyoto commitments she continues to tout, wouldn't May be far better off pointing to the NDP's Kyoto plan and other emission-reduction plans past and present (even for their ideas even if May doesn't agree with all the means), rather than simply leaving unanswered the question of what Canada could do to reach the goal which May sees as so important?

It remains to be seen whether the Cons can weasel their way out of any concrete action on global warming and other environmental issues. But that task becomes far easier for them when Canada's supposed environmental party refuses to offer any suggestions as to how to reach essential targets. And if May really thinks that she's helping anybody by neglecting to mention the work that's already been done to move Canada toward its Kyoto commitments, then both her party and Canada's environment may be in trouble going forward.

Update: Eugene has more. Meanwhile, the Greens are also calling for support to biofuels to be detached from any talk about wider emissions legislation - which seems to hint at a lack of interest in participating in any negotiations, as it hardly seems a good idea to start detaching parts of the whole if a complete strategy is actually in the works.