Interim Liberal Leader Bill Graham and Bloc Québécois Leader Gilles Duceppe accused Prime Minister Stephen Harper on Thursday of "twiddling his thumbs" on climate change as a majority of Canadians say their concerns about the environment continue to increase. 

The opposition leaders' comments came as the head of the UN climate change secretariat said Canada has given no indication of plans to withdraw from the Kyoto Protocol.

Bill Graham
(CBC)

A recent survey conducted by CBC News and Environics Research Group found 71 per cent of Canadians believed the federal Conservatives' proposed clean air plan is not tough enough in dealing with environmental issues.

"I think Canadians are putting two and two together," Graham said Thursday at a news conference with Duceppe in Ottawa. "It's demonstrating that the force of nature as it changes is going to create huge problems for the planet."

Graham also called Environment Minister Rona Ambrose the "climate change anti-leader," and said she should be prepared to acknowledge Canada's global responsibility in reducing greenhouse gases when she appears at the UN conference on climate change in Nairobi this week.

"This is an issue that has actually put the government at odds with all the opposition parties," Graham later told CBC News.

During question period Thursday, Harper slammed the previous Liberal government decision to sign Kyoto without appropriate planning in what he called a "last-minute agreement that was hastily drafted on the plane to Kyoto."

At the climate conference Thursday, Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, said he spoke with Canadian officials about their position at the start of the two-week conference in Kenya.

"I explicitly went to the Canadians on Monday and asked them: 'What now is your formal position on staying within the protocol?' And … they expressed no intention to withdraw," De Boer said Thursday in an interview with Reuters.

"I recognize, given where their emissions are going, it will be very difficult for Canada to achieve its target."

Katrina, Europe floods raised Canadians' concerns

Graham cited severe droughts in Africa, floods in Europe and the media attention surrounding the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina last year as possible factors for Canadians viewing climate change as a paramount issue.

"It's an increased acknowledgment in the press generally that the severity of weather conditions that are taking place in the world are causing huge environmental damages in ways they haven't before," Graham said.

Politicians and environmentalists have slammed the Conservatives' Clean Air Act, which would implement regulations to make industries cut their air pollutants by 2010 and sets a new target for cutting overall greenhouse gas emissions by the year 2050.

"Regardless of our political stripes, we share the same planet," Graham said.

Graham told CBC the Liberals would seek changes to the Clean Air Act while pushing forward with a private member's bill from MP Pablo Rodriguez at the same time. The interim Liberal leader said the private member's bill would be supported by the Bloc and the NDP.

Layton absent

NDP Leader Jack Layton was noticeably absent from the news conference. Layton was reportedly in a private meeting with Harper to discuss sending the clean air legislation back to a parliamentary committee.

Duceppe said he asked Layton to join the other opposition leaders in a "united approach" against the government, but was turned down.

"Obviously, the NDP has the same approach as we do, but you'd have to ask them," Duceppe said.