Oh, Canada! Oh, the Shame!

On why Canada should be ashamed of it’s pollution reputation.

Players in the international climate change negotiations world all know that Bonn is one of the locations of UNFCCC intersessionals. Those well versed in their COP history could tell you that Bonn played host to COP5. It’s a smaller number of individuals who remember Bonn as the birth place of the Fossil of the Day awards though.

Since then, Fossils have been awarded everyday at 6pm at all UNFCCC meetings by the Climate Action Network and Avaaz. Presented in a theatrical manner, comparable to Cirque de Soleil, the country doing their utmost to prevent progress of the negotiations is declared the winner. Although it has only been awarded a couple of times in the award’s ten year history, countries may also win the Ray of the Day award for actions that substantially advance progress in the climate talks. At the end of COPs, the Colossal Fossil is awarded to one country who has consistently appeared “done well” in doing poorly for the planet.

Canada, the defending Colossal Fossil winner for the past three COPs, has clearly brought it’s A-game to the negations by winning first place on Day 1 of COP16. Intent on defending their status as stellar champions in being laggards, they also snagged second and third place. Some of the reasons as to why Canada was awarded a hat trick included:

– Working to “kill” clean energy laws in other countries, namely America, by working with companies such as Exxon

– Cutting funding for Canada’s climate science foundation

– Having unelected Senators prevent any debate on a progressive climate bill

Photo by Linh Do.