CANADA - ORGANIZING FOR CLIMATE CHANGE POLICY WORK

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 OTTAWA 001437 SENSITIVE SIPDIS DEPARTMENT FOR WHA, OES, AND EB WHITE HOUSE FOR CEQ DOE FOR POLICY AND INTERNATIONAL E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: SENV ENRG KCHG CA SUBJECT: CANADA - ORGANIZING FOR CLIMATE CHANGE POLICY WORK REF: A. STATE 116939 ¶B. OTTAWA 446 (NOTAL) ¶C. OTTAWA 438 (NOTAL) This message is Sensitive but Unclassified. Please protect accordingly. ¶1. (U) This message responds to ref a's request for information on how the government of Canada has organized itself to prepare for negotiations for a post-2012 climate framework and to develop and implement domestic climate programs. Organizing for Domestic Climate Work -------------- ¶2. (SBU) On the domestic front at the political level, the government of Canada in September 2007 established a Cabinet Committee on Environment and Energy Security. As currently constituted, the committee is chaired by former environment (and now transport and infrastructure) minister John Baird. Other committee members include ministers for revenue, environment, health, and natural resources, and ministers of state (in effect junior ministers) for small business and tourism, western economic diversification, and science technology. Although this committee is nominally charged with bringing a multi-disciplinary approach to cabinet consideration of environment and energy security policy, the real weight rests with current environment minister Jim Prentice, Prime Minister Stephen Harper's chief lieutenant. Senior Environment Canada officials have told ESTH counselor that Prentice's mandate letter from the Prime Minister makes it clear that lead responsibility for environmental matters, including climate change, lies with Prentice and Environment Canada. Prentice's appointment to the environment portfolio on October 28 is unquestionably more important in signaling enhanced federal government interest in the environment and climate work than the establishment of the interagency cabinet committee. ¶3. (SBU) Bureaucratically, the federal government has not added significant new staff for climate change policy or implementation work, and it has not significantly re-organized the bureaucracy dealing with climate at the federal level. Domestic climate policy work at the federal level is interagency, with Environment Canada taking the lead role. Other Canadian government departments with major roles include Natural Resources, Transport, and Agriculture, with other agencies brought in as the issues dictate. Senior Environment Canada officials describe the interagency process as smooth and open. Perhaps even more so than with international climate policy, Canadian domestic climate policy is the product of significant consultation with the provinces, industry, and other stakeholders, including First Nations and aboriginal peoples. Provinces are heavily QNations and aboriginal peoples. Provinces are heavily involved because the environment is a shared jurisdiction in Canada (with the provinces in fact holding the lion's share of responsibility and authority),and much of even federal policy can only be implemented by provinces. (See Ref c for a description of shared jurisdiction in Canada on environment, energy, and other matters.) Senior officials are therefore heavily involved in this consultation with the provinces and other stakeholders in deciding what climate OTTAWA 00001437 002 OF 002 policies are feasible, and, perhaps more importantly, doable. (Ref b describes the most recent federal pronouncement on climate policy and discusses the interplay between federal and provincial interests. Our understanding is that regulations for the domestic climate regime will be issued - published in the Canada Gazette - in early December 2008 and come into force on January 1, 2010.) And in the International Arena -------------- ¶4. (U) On the international plane, Canada did make a change in its organization for negotiations for a post-2012 framework with the naming of Michael Martin as chief negotiator and ambassador for climate change in May 2008. Martin had been Environment Canada's assistant deputy minister for strategic policy, and had been involved in the file since May 2006. He spent the bulk of his career in the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade. Environment Canada assistant deputy minister for international affairs David McGovern had been Canada's chief climate negotiator and remains actively involved in the file. Martin's direct staff is small; the bulk of Canada's international climate policy development and staff-level negotiation is still done in McGovern's international affairs branch. The Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade also participates in international climate negotiations. ¶5. (U) Canada's cooperation with the United States in international climate fora remains strong. As Washington agencies are aware, Canada hosted its first major Asia Pacific Partnership for Clean Development and Climate meeting (of the Policy and Implementation Committee) in Vancouver at the end of last month. ¶6. (U) Embassy does have discussions on U.S. and Canadian climate policies with other Ottawa diplomatic missions, particularly the UK High Commission. Visit Canada,s Economy and Environment Forum at http://www.intelink.gov/communities/state/can ada WILKINS