“The Urgency to Act on Climate Change”

No country on earth can avoid the effects of climate change or alone mitigate their impacts.  “Climate change is a truly global challenge.  Kyoto opened the way, but it is necessary to go a lot further,” said Ambassador Jacques Bilodeau, Canada’s Ambassador for climate change at “Rendez-vous citoyen:  Kyoto 2005” held Saturday, November 26 at the University of Quebec in Montreal. 

Ambassador Bilodeau described for participants the extensive preparations that had taken place globally for the UN Conference on Climate Change, which runs from November 28 until December 9.  The Ambassador met Ministers and officials in more than 30 countries as part of an unprecedented global consultation which saw Canadian Ministers and senior officials hold than 150 meetings in 50 countries. 

His message in his meetings was direct:  “There is no an easy solution to the climate change challenge.  Current efforts to address it are important but they are really just the first steps down what will be a long road.” 

The Ambassador said that through the consultation process it became clear that: “the Montreal Conference will need to improve and strengthen the Kyoto Protocol and the Framework Convention on Climate Change Convention in order to initiate a discussion of options for long-term cooperative action on climate change”.