Charest says Harper must be more aggressive in fighting climate change

Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government must catch up to the rest of the world when it comes to environmental policy, Quebec Premier Jean Charest said Friday.

Charest said the Canadian government will have to take a more aggressive approach to fighting climate change.

The Quebec premier said it was a necessary step to keep up with a multinational push for a new global agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

"Canada won't have any choice but to follow suit," Charest said, calling on Ottawa to adapt and put in place a more ambitious climate change plan than the one presented a few months ago.

Environment Minister Jim Prentice, however, said Canada is already doing that.

Charest said Harper has no choice, given the determination of U.S. President Barack Obama and a number of countries to conclude a new accord this year on the reduction of greenhouse gases.

Harper extended an invitation to Charest on Friday to work together with the federal government to resolve their differences.

In an interview with the TVA television network, Harper responded to criticism from Charest about federal policy on the environment and changes to the formula used to determine federal transfer payments.

Harper said the federal government is committed to investing in green technologies and on green infrastructure projects included in this week's federal budget.

Prentice, in an interview in Ottawa, said climate change will be on the agenda when Obama visits Canada on Feb. 19.

"We have made it clear that we are interested in negotiating a North American cap-and-trade system with the United States and, in fact, this is one of the issues that the prime minister and the president have identified as a subject of discussion at the upcoming meeting," he said.

Charest, attending the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, said Canada's laxness on climate change is conspicuous.

"I don't agree at all," said Prentice.

"If you look at the principles upon which the new U.S. administration is basing their position on climate change, they are virtually identical to the positions that our government has enunciated.

"We have been calling for a North American approach to climate change that would put North America in the forefront of the world in terms of effective action to reduce greenhouse gases," he said.

Former U.S. vice-president Al Gore told one session that Obama is serious about environmental questions.

World political leaders are to meet in Copenhagen in December to adopt an international treaty to replace the Kyoto Protocol on greenhouse gas emissions.