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The UN dedicated an entire day yesterday to Climate Change talks prior to its General Assembly’s Annual Debate in New York. The world’s leaders took the opportunity to say absolutely nothing new.

My own Prime Minister for instance, Mr Harper, continued his record of telling us only that Kyoto won’t work, rather than telling us what will. He claimed that Canada is taking a balanced approach to acting about climate change. We Canadians would call it a non-approach, as it seems to be based on stalling any real action by blaming the previous government for their lack of action.

Mr Harper said that our priority must be to “find cleaner and more efficient ways to convert hydrocarbons into energy.” But he continues to back away from actually implementing these technologies which are readily available. At a talk I attended recently by Dr. David Keith, a world expert on the topic of Carbon Capture and Sequestration, Dr. Keith expressed his frustration with the Harper administration for repeatedly making promises of action that he never keeps.

Furthermore, shortly after the UN meeting, the Prime Minister announced that Canada will be joining the Asia Pacific Partnership, comprised of the six nations responsible for half of the world’s GHG emissions, and more than half of its coal production. I wonder which end of the equation will weigh more heavily in their plans? Aside from the fact that the partnership has no actual targets, their goal, as stated on their website, is to address the partnering nations’ increasing energy needs, air pollution, energy security, and GHG emissions intensities. In that order.

So it seems that Mr. Harper is taking his domestic strategy systematically disassembled any of the real (but admittedly few) climate change policies left to him by his predecessors in favour of legislation with no real targets or consequences, and repeating on the global scale. Well done.

Governor Schwarzenegger, on the other hand, appeared to be the grown-up of the group, urging other leaders to stop playing the blame game, and just get something done for a change. And the Governor can say that, because California has been getting the job done. Among other things, they lead the US in car fuel efficiency standards. So much so, in fact, that George W. has actually lobbied against them.

And while we’re on the topic of the President of the United States - where the hell was he?? Bush’s absence from the meetings shows once again that he thinks himself above international governments. He has not only withdrawn outright from Kyoto, but he’s now trying to appoint himself the world’s policeman of nuclear resources with his Global Nuclear Energy Partnership.
So, the tally? Schwarzenegger proved himself once again to be not just a movie star, but also a political star. The other two proved themselves once again shirkers of global (and globally embarrassing) proportions. Hopefully we have better luck in Bali.