Copenhagen Spoof Shames Canada; Climate Debt No Joke

"Canada is 'red-faced'!" (Globe and Mail) "Copenhagen spoof shames Canada!" (Guardian) "Hoax slices through Canadian spin on warming!" (The Toronto Star) "A childish prank!" (Stephen Harper, Prime Minister of Canada)

What at first looked like the flip-flop of the century has been revealed as a sophisticated ruse
by a coalition of African, North American, and European activists. The
purpose: to highlight the most powerful nations' obstruction of
meaningful progress in Copenhagen, to push for just climate debt
reparations, and to call out Canada in particular for its terrible climate policy.

Climate Debt Agents from ActionAid

The elaborate intercontinental operation was spearheaded by a group of concerned Canadian citizens, the "Climate Debt Agents" from ActionAid, and The Yes Men. It involved the creation of a best-case scenario in which Canadian government representatives unleashed a bold new initiative to curb emissions and spearhead a "Climate Debt Mechanism" for the developing world.

The ruse started at 2:00 PM Monday, when journalists around the world were surprised to receive a press release from "Environment Canada" (enviro-canada.com, a copy of ec.gc.ca) that claimed Canada was reversing its position on climate change.

In the release, Canada's Environment Minister, Jim Prentice, waxed
lyrical. "Canada is taking the long view on the world economy," said
Prentice. "Nobody benefits from a world in peril. Contributing to the
development of other nations and taking full responsibilities for our
emissions is simple Canadian good sense."

Thirty minutes later, the same "Environment Canada" sent out another press release, congratulating itself on Uganda's excited response to the earlier fake announcement. A video featuring an impassioned response by "Margaret Matembe," supposedly a COP15 delegate from Uganda, was embedded in a fake COP15 website.
"Canada, until now you have blocked climate negotiations and refused to
reduce emissions," said "Matembe." "Of course, you do sit on the
world's second-largest oil reserve. But for us it isn't a mere economic
issue - it's about drought, famine, and disease."

(The video was shot in a replica of the Bella Center's briefing
room, at Frederiksholms Kanal 4, in the center of Copenhagen. Matembe
was actually Kodili Chandia, a "Climate Debt Agent" from ActionAid,
a collective of activists that push for rich countries to help those
most affected by climate change for adaptation and mitigation projects.
The "Climate Debt Agents," with their signature bright red suits, have
been a ubiquitous presence in Copenhagen during the climate summit.)

Then it was time for Canada to react. One hour later, another "Environment Canada" (this one at ec-gc.ca) released a bombastic response to the original release. This one quoted Jim Prentice, Canada's Minister for the Environment, decrying the original announcement:
"It is the height of cruelty, hypocrisy, and immorality to infuse with
false hopes the spirit of people who are already, and will
additionally, bear the brunt of climate change's terrible human
effects. Canada deplores this moral misfire."

Because almost none of the resulting news coverage even mentioned Uganda or "Matembe's" response, a fourth release was sent from the second website (ec-gc.ca).

Meanwhile, in the real world

The real Canadian government's reactions were almost as strange as the fake ones in the release. Dimitri Soudas, a spokesperson for the Canadian Prime Minister, emailed reporters and blamed Steven Guilbeault,
cofounder of Quebec-based Equiterre. "More time should be dedicated to
playing a constructive role instead of childish pranks," said Soudas in
a first email, while misspelling Guilbeault's name.

Guilbeault demanded an apology.
"A better way to use his time would probably be to advise the Canadian
government to change its deeply flawed position on climate," said
Guilbeault.

Soudas and Guilbeault were seen exchanging angry words
in the hallway outside of Canada's 3:30pm press conference, which did
not start until 4:30pm, and at which the Canadians refused to answer
any questions about the flurry of false releases.

More raised voices were heard
when Stephen Chu, the US Secretary of Energy, refused to pose for a
photo with his Canadian counterpart, Jim Prentice. After Steve Kelly,
Prentice's chief of staff, begged for 10 minutes, the US guy finally
asked why a photo was so important. Kelly replied that
"we were carpetbagged this morning by [environmental non-governmental
organizations] with a false press release. I gotta change the story."

Why Blame Canada?

The only country in the world to have abandoned the Kyoto Protocol's
emissions and climate debt targets, Canada also has the most
energy-intensive, destructive and polluting oil reserves in the world.
The Alberta tar sands, according to The Economist, are in fact the world's biggest single industrial source of carbon emissions.

"By not agreeing to emissions reductions, Canada is holding a loaded
gun to our heads, and seems ready to pull the trigger on millions of us
around the globe, " said Margaret Matembe aka Kodili Chandia of the "Climate Debt Agents." "They leave us no choice but to see them as criminal."

At last year's climate summit in Poznan, Poland, over 400 civil society organizations voted Canada worst
of all nations in blocking progress towards a binding climate treaty.
Will Canada take the dubious prize again this year in Copenhagen?

"The Canadian government is not listening to its citizens,"
says Sarah Ramsey, a resident of Alberta who has seen the destruction
of the tar sands firsthand. Ramsey traveled to Copenhagen to give voice
to a generation of young Canadians. "We are discouraged and demoralized
by our government's position on climate change. We decided to lend our
government a hand, and show them what good leadership looks like."

In solidarity with the delegates from the G77 Bloc of nations,
today's intervention was also meant to highlight an issue at the heart
of the ongoing talks-the issue of climate justice, and the climate debt
that the developed world owes the developing world. Seventy-five
percent of the historical emissions that created the climate crisis
came from 20% of the world's population in developed countries, according to the UN, yet up to 80% of the impacts of the climate crisis are experienced in the developing world, according to the World Bank.

"I meant every word I said," says Kodili Chandia, a spokesperson for
the Climate Debt Agents, who spoke out as a member of the Ugandan
delegation. "This debate isn't just about facts and figures and
abstract concepts of fairness-the drought we are seeing right now in
East Africa is directly threatening the lives of millions of people,
including farmers in my own family. We have not created this problem
but we are living with the consequences. That's why I still say: It's
time for rich countries to pay their climate debt."

- 30 -

There will be a press conference today at the "good" Bella Center used to shoot the fake announcement videos: 1pm, Frederiksholms Kanal 4, Copenhgaen.

More dream announcements coming soon! Come make your own or stay tuned at good-cop15.org.

Photos by Joseph Huff-Hannon