What Harper said about Kyoto

A great deal of hype has been made in the press recently regarding a 5 year old letter written by Prime Minister Stephen Harper when he was leader of the old Canadian Alliance Party.

Here is the relevant text of Harper's letter to CA party supporters.

We’re gearing up for the biggest struggle our party has faced since you entrusted me with the leadership. I’m talking about the “battle of Kyoto” — our campaign to block the job-killing, economy-destroying Kyoto Accord.

It would take more than one letter to explain what’s wrong with Kyoto, but here are a few facts about this so-called “Accord“:

—It’s based on tentative and contradictory scientific evidence about climate trends.

—It focuses on carbon dioxide, which is essential to life, rather than upon pollutants.

—Canada is the only country in the world required to make significant cuts in emissions. Third World countries are exempt, the Europeans get credit for shutting down inefficient Soviet-era industries, and no country in the Western hemisphere except Canada is signing.

—Implementing Kyoto will cripple the oil and gas industry, which is essential to the economies of Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia.

—As the effects trickle through other industries, workers and consumers everywhere in Canada will lose. THERE ARE NO CANADIAN WINNERS UNDER THE KYOTO ACCORD.

—The only winners will be countries such as Russia, India, and China, from which Canada will have to buy “emissions credits.” Kyoto is essentially a socialist scheme to suck money out of wealth-producing nations.

—On top of all this, Kyoto will not even reduce greenhouse gases. By encouraging transfer of industrial production to Third World countries where emissions standards are more relaxed, it will almost certainly increase emissions on a global scale.

The bold text is what's caught the media's attention, but Harper was right on the mark when he wrote those words back in 2002. Nothing about them has changed since.

The full text of the letter can be seen by clicking here.