Search

Recently, the idea of the green state has emerged as a way of understanding the state in the context of the international relations of the environment. By assuming the role of a public environmental trustee and responsible global environmental citizen, states can achieve changes at the international and domestic levels. However, for changes to be sustained and deep, policy needs to challenge rather than support the logic of ecologically destructive competitive capitalism and hierarchical globalization. This paper argues that Canada's historical commitment to green multilateralism makes it well-positioned to move toward the role of a green state, but that a major barrier remains Canada's continuing support of inequitable and unsustainable global relations of economic exchange based on competitiveness. Rather than forming a single coherent strategy on climate change, for example, two distinct and competing principles vie for dominance in Canadian international environmental policy: competitiveness and protection. As a result, Canada's climate change policies have been irregular and inconsistent. For example, Canada has recently departed from multilateral commitments agreed at Kyoto, while simultaneously claiming to take decisive action to reduce overall greenhouse gas emissions. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper asks whether or not the political party in power has makes a difference in terms of Canadian international environmental diplomacy and policy. While numerous international issues could be used in this paper, the focus will be on the evolution of climate change policy from 1988 to present. This time period allows us to include the Mulroney Progressive Conservative era, the Chrétien and Martin Liberal eras and the present Harper Conservative government. It will be seen that there has been a change in the diplomacy with a significant shift in tone with the arrival of the Harper Conservatives. And while the tone has changed, it is difficult to argue that the policy implementation has fundamentally changed over time. Indeed, we move from the agenda setting of the Mulroney Conservatives to the signature, ratification and implementation of the Kyoto Protocol under the Liberals and then the Harper Conservatives, but the end result is quite similar when we consider emissions reductions as our benchmark. Environmental imperatives do not drive Canadian climate change policy, regardless of the tone of the international diplomacy. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]