EDMONTON - Federal Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff says he doesn't think the oilsands should be singled out as Canada's major source of pollution.

The oilsands have become a popular target in Copenhagen as world leaders meet on climate change, but Ignatieff says the oilsands aren't Canada's only environmental problem.

Ignatieff, who was in Edmonton on Monday, says the oilsands are a national industry that employs Canadians from coast to coast to coast.

He says it needs to become environmentally sustainable, and industry wants to start doing that, but the Harper government has not given it "credible" environmental legislation to work with.

The oilsands are Alberta's second-largest industrial emitter -- the biggest is coal-fired plants.

Greenhouse gas emissions from the oilsands account for five per cent of Canada's total emissions and 0.1 per cent of global emissions.