As most of the political spotlight is on the presidential election in USA you might have missed the election in Canada last week. Unfortunately not much changed there. Stephen Harper and his Conservative party remained in power, the Liberals lost 19 seats and the Greens failed to even win a seat.

The outcome of the election was a blow to the environment and anyone who wants tough actions against climate change. Mitchell Anderson, from the DeSmogBlog, said that “the Canadian election saw little talk of dealing with climate change since stock markets tanked in the final week of the campaign.”

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Last week South Africa’s government unveiled an “ambitious” climate change plan that includes rigorous energy efficiency measures and a carbon tax on CO2 polluting industries.

“The world faces a global climate emergency. It is now clear that only action by both developed and developing countries can prevent the climate crisis from deepening,” environment minister Martinus Van Schalkwyk said in a statement.

In 2003 South Africa emitted 446 million tonnes of greenhouse gases “and forecasts growth to a maximum of 550 million tonnes a year by 2025.”

South Africa wants the greenhouse gas emissions to stop growing “at the latest by 2020 to 2025, stabilise for up to 10 years, and then decline in absolute terms.” Van Schalkwyk said that “the aim is to limit global temperature increases to two degrees above pre-industrial levels.”

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