Canada shows welcome resolve on climate change – WWF

The 11th Conference of the Parties (COP 11) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change will be held in Montreal, November 7 – 17, 2005, with 189 governments expected to attend. This session is especially significant as it will be the first Meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol following the Protocol entering into force today. A total of 141 Parties have ratified the treaty.

“Canada is willing to take international leadership and move Kyoto forward,” says Jennifer Morgan, Director of the WWF Climate Change Programme. “Finally a North American country is showing some leadership in tackling climate change.”

Canada’s emissions of greenhouse gases have increased rather than decreased since the Kyoto Protocol was agreed in 1997. Its much anticipated domestic climate change plan should be revealed soon and hopefully will ensure that the country meets its targets.

As chair of the UN climate conference, Canada will also be in a pivotal position to broker the next generation of climate change action. This means moving the ‘Kyoto Club’, an unofficial name for the countries who have ratified the Protocol, towards agreement on more ambitious and binding targets after the first period of the Kyoto Protocol ends in 2012. The real task will be to ensure negotiations progress in the face of unwilling governments such as the ones of the US and Australia.

This year’s meeting of the G8 Heads of State in Scotland provides a stepping stone to the COP11 and action on climate change. The UK’s Prime Minister Tony Blair has put climate change firmly on the agenda, as one of two priorities, with an opportunity for G8 governments to frame commitments that will keep the rise of average world temperature below the danger ceiling of 2° Celsius (3.6° Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial times. This is the crucial tipping point for the environment – crossing it would have devastating impact for people and wildlife.