Canada ranked near the bottom when it comes to greenhouse gas emissions

A car sits idling in sub-zero temperatures across the street from the Parliament buildings in Ottawa, Monday Feb. 5, 2007. (Tom Hanson / THE CANADIAN PRESS)

OTTAWA - A European report ranks Canada 55th of 58 countries in terms of tackling greenhouse gas emissions -- ahead of only Iran, Kazakhstan and Saudi Arabia.

And the Washington-based Center for Global Development released a report yesterday ranking Canada 27th and last on the environment out of the world's wealthiest 27 countries.

The annual U-N climate conference is in its second week of talks as negotiators in Warsaw move toward developing a post-2020 international climate change regime.

The goal is to deliver a new model at the 2015 summit in Paris.

Environment Minister Leona Aglukkaq says Canada is taking a leadership role in international climate change efforts.

But the Climate Action Network Europe and Germanwatch say Canada is starting from the back of the pack.

Its report says Canada still shows no intention of moving forward with climate policy and therefore remains the worst performer of all industrialized countries.

Last month, Environment Canada's own analysis showed Canada slipped further away over the past year from meeting its 2020 greenhouse emissions targets.

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