By Jennifer Ditchburn

THE CANADIAN PRESS

OTTAWA -- Canada will be left in a cloud of green dust by the United States on climate change and other top environmental issues if it doesn't make important policy moves, environmental groups warn.

The organizations are trying to raise the profile of environmental issues in advance of U.S. President Barack Obama's visit to Canada on Thursday. They say Obama's plans to stiffen regulations on everything from greenhouse-gas emissions to car standards are about to make the Conservative government's own agenda look painfully lacking.

Already, they point out, Obama's stimulus package spends five times more per capital on renewable energy and green projects than Canada's own recession plan.

``At the meeting we're hopeful that the prime minister is going to really receive a wake-up call when it comes to the gulf that's opening up between the seriousness of action to deal with climate change in the United States under President Obama and what we've seen in Canada,'' said Matthew Bramley of the Pembina Institute.

Talk is already underway about developing a cap-and-trade system in the United States to deal with greenhouse-gas emissions, similar to the carbon market in the European Union. The Conservative government has also said it's interested in exploring such an idea, but Equiterre's Stephen Guilbeault said it would have a long way to go before it could link up with the United States.

For starters, the Canadian climate-change framework does not put a hard cap on greenhouse-gas emissions. Instead, it bases reductions on a company's rate of production, referred to as intensity targets. The Canadian government bases its reduction targets on a 2006 base year, while Obama has referred to a 1990 base year as prescribed by the Kyoto Accord.

And perhaps the biggest problem is that the Conservative government has yet to even publish greenhouse-gas regulations. The federal environment commissioner released a report last week suggesting the government's own analysis on how it will reduce emissions by 20 per cent by 2020 is seriously flawed.

``Unfortunately, to have a target you need legislation, you need to have a plan to implement, you need to have markers to be able to tell that we will reach our targets, and all the independent analysis that has been done on what Canada has put forward so far have said that Canada will fail,'' said Guilbeault.

The Conservative government is anxious to see signals from the Obama administration that it will not label oil exports from Alberta's oilsands dirty because of their massive carbon footprint.

Alden Myer of the U.S.-based Union of Concerned Scientists said he's heard no talk in Washington about developing a North American carbon market.

``No one wants to create a system that gives Canada more running room for the emissions from the tar sands in Alberta,'' Myer said.

The groups also said that Obama is poised to take a much greater international leadership role on climate change, another area where Canada risks being isolated and appearing out-of-step with its allies.