Prentice doubtful on climate change accord in Copenhagen

 Less than two months from key global climate change talks, federal Environment Minister Jim Prentice said he doubts whether an agreement will be hammered out in Copenhagen.
"Increasingly people are being realistic, that it's hard to see a full and complete agreement being arrived at," Prentice told the Calgary Herald editorial board Wednesday.
"There's probably too much work to be done in the time left to achieve that," Prentice said.
U. S. President Barack Obama's administration is now working on alternative bilateral agreements with countries such as India and China with the intention of reviving a process that appears increasingly deadlocked between developing countries and advanced economies.
Prentice said the Copenhagen meeting is still important, but "it's more likely we'll be working toward some agreed principles."
Regardless, the minister said Canada will go ahead with its own plan of reducing climate changing emissions by 20 per cent below 2006 levels by 2020 --and each province will individually have to live up to that target, including Alberta.
"There will have to be a parity of effort across the country," Prentice said.
"We're all in this together. If that's going to be Canada's national target, then each province is going to have to share their share of the burden."
Prentice added the caveat that specific agreements have not been worked out between Ottawa and the provinces.
But there's no doubt the federal government has more ambitious targets than Alberta. The Stelmach government's plan allows for absolute increases in emissions until 2020.
While a difference in greenhouse strategies has been a source of contention between the Alberta and Ottawa, provincial Environment Minister Rob Renner appeared unfazed by Prentice's comments.
"It's a very complex discussion," Renner said. "I'm comfortable that we will have a unified position when we get to Copenhagen."
Renner added the province hasn't shied away from being proactive in making CO2 reduction targets -- based on how much industries produce rather than absolute caps on emissions. But he added that more ambitious targets are possible.
Alberta's "legislated reductions are relatively modest," Renner acknowledged. "Once everybody else comes on board, there's no reason to believe that we can't increase the effort . . . but we can't do it now because it would put us out of sync with everyone else and it would make our industry totally uncompetitive."
Environmental groups have long been worried that whatever strategy the Harper government rolls out for regulating industry emissions, it will allow for Alberta's oilsands to grow unfettered.
"A credible cap and trade system should not include loopholes or special treatment for sectors and provinces," said Clare Demerse of the Pembina Institute.
"The treatment of Alberta, and particularly of the oilsands sector, will be a key litmus test for whatever plan the federal government releases this fall. That's because the oilsands are the largest source of the growth in Canada's emissions," Demerse said.
Prentice said negotiations leading up to Copenhagen have proved difficult.
Alleviating poverty is a bigger priority than reducing emissions for less-wealthy countries. "They make a compelling argument," Prentice said.
Canada's position is to replace the Kyoto accord with a new agreement.
In that vein, Prentice also commented on a controversy as to whether developing countries walked out as Canadian representatives spoke in Bangkok earlier this month.
The minister said that didn't happen; those countries chose not to participate in the technical discussion