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Address by Prime Minister Paul Martin
at the UN Conference on Climate Change
December 7, 2005: Montreal, Quebec
Mr. Chairman, conference delegates from around the world, ladies
and gentlemen:
I want to first extend a welcome, on behalf of Canada and all Canadians,
to those of you who have been working so hard here in Montreal these
past many days – and to those now joining the conference.
And just let me say that we could not have a more persuasive advocate
than our chairman, Stephane Dion, the Canadian minister of the environment.
He has traveled to literally dozens of countries, meeting with many
of you on more than one occasion, listening to all, seeking consensus,
working for progress. I want to tell you, unequivocally, how important
it has been to everyone in my government - and to me personally
- to not lose sight of our goals here.
In October, I met with a group of Canadians concerned about climate
change. They advocated short- and medium-term targets to guide efforts
to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. They expressed hope that this
conference would lead to an inclusive, effective regime by 2008
or 2009. They wanted us to implement mechanisms for emissions trading
and clean development.
I’d heard these positions advocated before. But not from
people like this. For these were leaders of some of Canada’s
largest corporations, including those in the resource and energy
sectors. They were encouraging government to adopt an aggressive
plan to combat climate change. They had come to understand, they
told me, that Canada’s economic and environmental futures
were entwined. And, more than that, that our nation had a responsibility
to join those at the forefront of the fight against global warming.
Everyone in this room understands that our world is changing. And
now attitudes are changing, too. There is a consensus growing. And
that consensus presents us with an opportunity – a chance
to make a difference here. A chance to make Montreal a name that
is synonymous with the moment the world came together, and together
set off down the long but vital path to progress, real progress,
progress we can measure, progress we can one day celebrate.
The time is past to debate the impact of climate change. We no
longer need to ask people to imagine its effects, for now we can
see them. You may each have examples from your own part of the world.
As climate change takes hold, we will be forced to re-evaluate what
we can successfully farm and harvest. Patterns of precipitation
– of drought – are shifting; weather events are intensifying.
Storms and forest fires, and infestation are already testing our
capacity to respond and to recover. As time goes on, these events
will worsen. There will be an economic toll. There will be a human
toll.
Here in Canada, our Far North has become an incubator for the altered
world of tomorrow. High in the Arctic, in our interior and along
our coasts, the country we know is being transformed. Winters are
growing milder, summers hotter and more severe, there is plant life
where before there was none; there is water where before there was
ice. Our permafrost is thawing – and releasing methane gas
into the atmosphere, accelerating climate change itself. Within
short decades, the North-West Passage, the famously un-navigable
thoroughfare of history, may be passable – a striking and
unsettling example of our delicate balance succumbing to untenable
strain.
Some speak of the cost of bringing about change. But surely we
realize by now that a greater cost will be exacted if we lack the
will or the tenacity to change.
We can talk about this in terms of energy security, in terms of
economics. We can talk in terms of ecology or our ethical obligation
to others and to ourselves. In each case the facts line up the same
way. In each case they point to the same conclusion. We must act,
and we must act now.
Traditional fossil fuels have become too costly to waste –
too expensive to use indiscriminately; with too great and lasting
an impact on the planet. In the face of this challenge we cannot
separate the collective from the sovereign interest. We need to
accept that with our behaviour, with our actions, we affect one
another and the planet we share. We are in this together.
Many in the developing world blame developed nations for having
gotten us into this. And who can disagree? Certainly not me. But
we are in this together.
There can be no hiding from the fact that the developing world,
which is so vulnerable, will suffer most if the effects of climate
change set off an even worse decline in local living conditions
or a global economic slowdown. These nations do not have the luxury
of a margin of error. We are in this together.
The developed world cannot walk away from its responsibilities.
I need only look at my own country. We are an energy-producing,
energy-consuming nation. Our record on combating climate change
was far from perfect in the 1990s.
But now we are investing billions in progressive, effective initiatives
as we work towards our Kyoto commitments. Now we are using our resource
strength as a platform for innovation: in cleaner energy, renewable
energy, sustainable energy, in efficiency and conservation.
This year we delivered the greenest budget in our history and a
comprehensive climate change agenda. With the governments of our
provinces and territories we’re investing in clean energy.
With our municipalities we’re investing in public transportation
and green infrastructure. With the big carbon emitters we’re
investing in new technology and innovation.
We’re doing all of this because the world needs a more efficient
and sustainable economy, and so do we, and we’re helping Canada
get on with it -- including business. It’s what they’re
asking for. And what they need from us – from government -
is the certainty that we won’t fail them in our duty to build
the framework they need, whether it’s hard targets or a market
for capped emissions and trading credits.
Coming out of this conference, we must have strong actions from
the 157 parties to Kyoto. We must have strong actions from all gathered
here. We must give ourselves the tools to ensure that signatory
countries comply with the protocol. And we must plan for the future.
Considering future commitments under the protocol will send a clear
signal that the world is addressing climate change over the long
term.
The task ahead will not be easy, but there is an encouraging precedent.
In 1987, a global coalition gathered in this city, in Montreal,
to commit to a collective course of action against chemical agents
that were destroying the ozone. We set targets, measured progress,
established new rules for industry, watched as new technologies
came to the fore. And we got results. Real and lasting results.
That, of course, was a challenge on a different order of magnitude.
Where the atmosphere has recovered little by little from ozone damage,
greenhouse gases are more insidious. Our planet will need centuries
to fully recover from what is already in our atmosphere. But the
principle stands. If we’re going to deal with climate change,
concerted action is essential. Leadership is essential. We must
heed the voice of our global conscience.
For the nations of the industrial world, the 20th century was a
story of growth, progress, advances, bigger, faster, and always
more. Such breathtaking ingenuity, so many brilliant minds, such
hard work. From Kitty Hawk to the Concorde, from the Model T to
Formula One. The frontiers of human knowledge and enterprise expanded.
Only in the latter stages of the century did we begin to sense and
then to understand and finally to prove that this progress, these
advances, were not achieved without cost.
The defining cause of climate change is human activity –
primarily how we produce and use energy. And the simple fact of
the matter is that our economies – indeed our societies -
cannot sustain our patterns of consumption.
Climate change is a global challenge that demands a global response,
yet there are nations that resist, voices that attempt to diminish
the urgency or dismiss the science – or declare, either in
word or in indifference, that this is not our problem to solve.
Well, it is our problem to solve. We are in this together.
The time is past to seek comfort in denial. The time is past to
pretend that any nation can stand alone, isolated from the global
community – for there is but one Earth, and we share it, and
there can be no hiding on any island, in any city, within any country,
no matter how prosperous, from the consequences of inaction.
We are called here to protect our planet. We are called here by
our citizens. We must find the will and the way to live up to what
they have every right to expect from us.
If we fail to meet the challenge of climate change, it will be
not a failure of nations. It will be a failure of people –
of me, of you, a failure of character for all who today are confronted
with the clear cost of our indulgence and who refuse to submit to
sacrifice and new ways.
What words will be spoken of the people of our time – that
we were delivered a great inheritance, that we took it all for granted,
that we chose the easy path, that we knowingly neglected the consequences
of our own ambition?
That is one future, but it need not be our future. Together, we
must strive for nothing less than a legacy of responsibility and
resolve. Together, we can turn human ingenuity to the noble purpose
of serving generations yet unborn -- repairing, not damaging; helping,
not hurting; doing what we can, all we can, to restore, renew, return
to balance.
The challenge is ours. So is the opportunity.
Thank you.
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