Thank you for your letter of July 5, 2010 to the Canadian Chamber of Commerce regarding our position on Bill C-311, The Climate Change Accountability Act.

We are disappointed that the Sierra Club would misrepresent our position on this Bill, indicating that we believe “developing the fossil fuel industry is the best way to fight climate change” and that the “Canadian Chamber of Commerce does not welcome real action on reducing emissions”. This is not true. Since 2005, the Canadian Chamber has called for a sustainable energy strategy for Canada that will respect the environment, provide secure and affordable energy and support the standard of living of Canadian families. This includes meeting our energy demand through the sustainable development of all energy sources, including non-fossil renewable energy and fuels. If you would like to read our discussion paper in this regard, released last October, it is available here.

The Canadian Chamber of Commerce has long supported actions to reduce the growth in Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions. Continued uncertainty regarding future climate change policy brings significant environmental and economic risks for business. It is important that the federal and provincial governments act decisively and in a coordinated manner to produce a Canadian solution that addresses these concerns. In particular, the government must continue to work on the development of a Canada-wide carbon pricing system as well as focusing on targeted actions where there are opportunities to achieve significant emission reductions. Our formal position on climate change, approved by our membership at our 2009 Annual General Meeting, can be found here.

In order to properly and responsibly address this global issue, it is also important that Canada move forward in cooperation with our major trading partners, and in particular, the United States. The Canadian government has set a medium-term reduction target of 17 per cent below 2005 emission levels by 2020 - the same goal as the United States. Setting targets that are unachievable and out of line with our 2 trading partners would endanger Canadian jobs and prosperity and would likely result in jobs being transferred abroad, with serious effects on our economy while having no net benefit for the environment.

The Canadian Chamber of Commerce will continue to welcome partnerships with any interested stakeholders to help to develop the path forward on climate change. An important part of this path forward will be the development of a national strategy for energy production and use.

Yours sincerely,

Scott Campbell
Director, Energy and Environment Policy