Climate Change

Our world is warming. The changing climate means costly floods and storms, the massive loss of living species, and shortages of water and food for millions of the world’s poorest people.

Surveys show that action on climate change is a top priority for Canadians. Time is very short, but it is not too late to make a difference.

To avoid dangerous climate change, the world’s governments must act to cut greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution to a small fraction of its current level.

Countdown to Copenhagen: Canada Must Step Up

In December 2007, the UN climate conference in Bali, Indonesia launched make-or-break negotiations on stepping up the fight against global warming. These negotiations are scheduled to wrap up in December 2009 in Copenhagen, Denmark, where governments have agreed to hammer out a final deal.

The “Bali Roadmap”

The Kyoto Protocol is the global climate agreement that requires industrialized countries to make an initial round of greenhouse gas (GHG) emission cuts from 2008–2012. Now, guided by a “roadmap” from the Bali conference, countries are negotiating “Kyoto II”. In Bali, governments agreed that Kyoto II must be guided by scientific analysis of the deeper emission reductions needed to avoid dangerous climate change.

Copenhagen: A fork in the road

Climate science tells us that, to avoid an unacceptable amount of global warming, the world’s GHG emissions must peak in just a few years — by 2020 at the latest. The new agreement to be reached at the Copenhagen conference, Kyoto II, will likely last until 2020. So the world's fight against catastrophic warming could be won or lost based on the outcome in Copenhagen.

The building blocks of a strong Kyoto II have already been identified, and there are reasons to be optimistic about a successful outcome in Copenhagen. For example, at the Bali conference, key developing countries showed a willingness to take on new commitments after 2012. Unfortunately, the federal government’s current GHG targets and policies do not represent a fair share of the global effort ― and this increases the risk of failure in Copenhagen.

Countdown

As the clock ticks down to Copenhagen, Canada has a shrinking window of opportunity to move from laggard to leader. The stakes have never been higher, and the costs of failure are all but unthinkable.