COPENHAGEN — Results of a comparative report by PowerUP Canada show that Canada has fallen well behind the United States in fighting climate change and is not keeping up with current efforts by the U.S. federal government.

The report titled Falling Behind: Comparing Canadian and U.S. efforts on Clean Energy and Global Warming was released in Copenhagen by PowerUP Canada's Executive Director Tzeporah Berman.

"The Canadian government promises to 'match US efforts' but we have already fallen dangerously behind and the gap grows by the day," said Berman. "Every day of delay, the federal government is giving away opportunities and piling costs onto Canadians."

Report Highlights include:

• Canada's global warming emissions are growing significantly while U.S. emissions are declining.
• The U.S. government is providing unprecedented levels of support to clean energy and efficiency while Canada's primary programs are expiring.
• The U.S. is aiming for deeper carbon cuts than its Copenhagen "target" -- deeper than Canada's "target" by orders of magnitude.
• Every moment of delay means that Canada is starting from further and further behind although nominally aiming for the same finish line.

"The US needs to do much more but by contrast Canada is not even trying," said Berman. "The U.S. has accelerated to unprecedented levels of action on carbon restrictions, efficiency and clean energy in the past year while Canada is falling dangerously behind."

PowerUP Canada is a leading voice for strong laws, investments and policies to support the expansion of a clean economy and combat global warming. The launch of PowerUP Canada, release of the "Time to Get Serious on Climate Change" statement and green stimulus recommendations to the last federal budget were supported by large citizens groups such as CARP (Canadian Association of Retired Professionals) and many opinion leaders, including five former Prime Ministers, leading academics and Canadian celebrities. Tzeporah Berman is in Copenhagen as Ambassador for Canada for the Global Observatory project (www.globalobservatory.net).

The full report is available at www.powerupcanada.ca/~ASSETS/DOCUMENT/fallingbehind_low.pdf

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