Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise in the House today for my first adjournment debate of 2015, with my hon. colleague, the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of the Environment. I would like him to know that we are going to have a lot of fun again this year. There will be many adjournment debates. He will have to get ready to stay up late. I will be asking him questions on a regular basis.
On December 3, I asked the hon. Minister of the Environment about the importance of fighting climate change. As hon. members know, all countries, including Canada, urgently need to work together. Canada's reputation with regard to climate change is not getting any better. It continues to get worse.
While China and the United States are making considerable efforts to improve, the Minister of the Environment keeps playing games by excluding opposition members, opposition environment critics, from official Canadian delegations on climate change, as was the case in Lima. What is more, my hon. colleague, the parliamentary secretary, was not even invited either. I would like to know why. It is too bad for him.
At the conference held this past December in Lima, Peru, the international community once again witnessed the Conservative government's inaction first-hand. It brought nothing new. The Minister of the Environment announced that her government did not even plan to regulate the oil and gas sector, which is responsible for this country's ever-increasing greenhouse gas emissions. We have been waiting for more than five years for greenhouse gas targets in this sector, but we have yet to see anything. On the contrary, the government announced that it would not do anything. Instead, it would kowtow to the oil and gas companies and the coal industry. The Lima agreement stipulates that Canada must set stricter targets than before.
Speaking of Canada's weak greenhouse gas targets, we know that our country will not reach its weak targets by 2020. Everyone has said so, except the government, which continues to hide its head in the sand. Everyone knows that we will not reach these miniscule targets. Everyone says so, even officials at Environment Canada.
Canada's complacency is shameful, given that this important conference in Lima has set the stage for the 21st conference, which will take place in Paris in 2015. The Paris conference is very important since that is where the new global climate treaty to succeed the Kyoto protocol will be presented. It is true; I forgot that the Conservatives withdrew from the Kyoto protocol, which shows how little regard they have for this issue.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who is usually quite reserved, abandoned that approach a long time ago. Indeed, he asked Canada to be more ambitious and to show more vision on the issue of climate change.
The two largest greenhouse gas emitters in the world, China and the United States, have already taken a major step forward. Will Canada follow their example by presenting a plan for reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the oil and gas industry? It is urgent.