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December 10, 2005: Montreal Agreement on Climate Change: Success on the World Stage

Canada

LIBERRAL PARTY OF CANADA

Montreal Agreement on Climate Change: Success on the World Stage

December 10, 2005

Prime Minister Paul Martin today applauded Environment Minister Stephane Dion for spear-heading a new breakthrough multi-lateral plan to combat climate change.

"Under Minister Dion’s leadership we have achieved a truly historic acknowledgement of the environmental challenge we face as a community of nations – backed by a firm commitment to the action we need to deal with it together," said Prime Minister Martin of the role played by his Environment Minister in the marathon all-night negotiating session that resulted in what is now being called the Montreal Action Plan.

"Our achievement in Montreal this morning will be recognized for years to come as a turning point in the global climate change movement."

Although details of the agreement remain to be hammered out, key decisions were made outlining the path for future international action on climate change. Under the Kyoto Protocol, the process for future commitments got underway, with a new working group established to discuss future commitments for developed countries for the period after 2012.

Environment Minister Dion gave credit to the delegates from the more than 180 countries that came together to build a clear road map to implement the Kyoto Protocol, to improve the Protocol as well as the Convention, and to innovate the world's future approach to cooperation on climate change, forming the basis for the Montreal Action Plan..

"Facing the worst ecological threat to humanity, you have said: the world is united and together, step by step, we will win this fight," he said.

Richard Kinley, acting head of the United Nations Climate Change Secretariat, heralded this week’s meeting in Montreal as "one of the most productive UN Climate Change Conferences ever.

"Our success in implementing the Kyoto Protocol, improving the Convention and Kyoto, and innovating for tomorrow led to an agreement on a variety of issues. This plan sets the course for future action on climate change."

Jennifer Morgan, Director of the World Wildlife Fund’s Global Climate Change Program, said the Montreal conference displayed the groundswell of support for real climate action.

"People know the Kyoto Protocol is the only viable approach to combat climate change and the Montreal meeting has successfully moved that process forward."

Even the U.S., which has not ratified the Kyoto Protocol, agreed to informal talks under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC).

The historic agreement comes a day after former President Bill Clinton, who met with Prime Minister in Montreal for a private discussion on climate change yesterday, urged proponents of the Kyoto Protocol to continue their efforts to win U.S. participation.

"We need to try to find a way for us to go forward, for us to have disagreements when we have them, but not to let the disagreements that we have be an excuse for doing nothing," Clinton told reporters on December 9. "We should take what they [the U.S.] have been willing to do and figure out can we pull everybody together around it."

The Kyoto Protocol has been a work in progress for the past decade but the agreement in Montreal means that the Protocol is now in effect and many of the rules for Green-House Gas emissions measurement, emissions trading and enforcement have been "switched on".

The Protocol is intended to create a global approach to climate change that will not impede the economic goals of developing countries. The "Clean Development Mechanism" will allow developing countries to access and use the newest, cleanest technologies so that having a successful and growing economy won’t mean new emissions. This part of the Protocol is now up and running, with defined rules and money allocated to it.

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