Photograph by: Chris Wattie, ReutersOTTAWA — The Harper government was urged to fight climate change on both sides of the Atlantic Wednesday through separate votes in both the Canadian and European parliaments.

In the House of Commons, MPs adopted a new version of the climate change accountability legislation that had reached the Senate in 2008, but died on the order paper when Prime Minister Stephen Harper called an election in the fall of that year.

The new version of the legislation, introduced by NDP MP Bruce Hyer, once again calls on the government to introduce a climate-change plan with targets that are consistent with scientific evidence about the need to reduce emissions levels that are trapping heat in the atmosphere and causing dangerous changes to climate.

While the Conservatives voted against the legislation, members from the Liberal Party and the Bloc Quebecois joined the NDP to adopt the bill and — by a 149-136 vote — sent it to the Senate for review.

"Let's hope this time, the Senate gets to it quickly," said NDP Leader Jack Layton. "Last time this bill passed three readings in the house, Stephen Harper managed to squeeze in an election, just before the Senate was about to approve the first legislation adopted in the world with deep reduction targets for greenhouse-gas emissions."

If approved by the Senate, the bill would also require an arm's-length assessment and evaluation to monitor the government's progress in tackling greenhouse-gas pollution.

Meantime, European Union politicians expressed concerns about the "impact of the extraction of oilsand(s) in Canada on the global environment," noting that the high level of greenhouse-gas emissions during the production process poses a threat to biodiversity.

Their warning was included in a wide-ranging resolution adopted for the Canada-EU Summit.

"The prime minister is being told in no uncertain terms by not only the Canadian Parliament, but the European Parliament that its refusal to hold the tarsands accountable for its greenhouse-gas pollution is a serious problem that's compromising Canada's ability to do its fair share," said Graham Saul, executive director of Climate Action Network Canada, a coalition of groups concerned about global warming.

The government has said it would take action to address pollution from large, industrial facilities only if the U.S. government introduces similar measures to cap emissions. Environment Minister Jim Prentice also has indicated the government supports an agreement in principle reached at the last international climate-change summit in Copenhagen, which did not have any binding targets.

The government has already said it will not meet its international obligations under the 1997 climate-change agreement signed in Kyoto, Japan, which requires Canada to lower greenhouse-gas emissions by an average of six per cent below 1990 levels between 2008 and 2012.

A similar piece of legislation, introduced by the opposition prior to the last election required the government to deliver a plan to meet its Kyoto target and report back on its progress. Environment Canada has been filing the required reports, without meeting the targets. However, critics say it has least forced the government to acknowledge that some policies are not as effective as it had previously claimed.