Paris Climate Treaty: Time to Reduce Footprints

Paris Climate Conference Treaty Beneficial for Caribbean States and Tourism Initiatives

By William Doyle-Marshall

“Canadians can be proud of the strong and positive role we played during these very important international negotiations to address one of the biggest challenges of our generation,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau emphasized after there was agreement on the Paris Climate Agreement earlier this month. He acknowledged there is much tough work that still needs to be accomplished at home and around the world to implement the agreement.

Elizabeth May, Leader of the Green Party, a long-time advocate for climate change said in an interview that her standards are pretty high. “I don’t want to paper over a bad deal and say ‘hurray, we have something’. I have been working at this too long; I have been working on trying to get a climate treaty since 1990. This is not the end of the road but unlike Copenhagen, this at least puts us on a good path to continue to reduce emissions as rapidly as possible,” May explained.

While admitting the agreement has the right framework to keep pushing and it’s got what developing countries need to see, she observed “it doesn’t have enforcement mechanism, that’s a key problem but we haven’t had enforcement mechanism in an environmental treaty since 1987.” That’s a political problem, the Green Party Leader affirmed “because world leaders give more attention to trade than they do to climate but given what we have in our hands as possible, when this negotiation began November 30, the climate and our grand kids have done very well.”

At the COP 21 climate conference in Paris, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is accompanied by (clockwise from top left) Assembly of First Nations Chief Perry Belgrade, Green Party Leader Elizabeth May, Minister of the Environment and Climate Change Catherine McKenna, Minister of Foreign Affairs Stéphane Dion, New Democratic Party Leader Thomas Mulcair, Conservative Environment and Climate Change Critic Ed Fast, Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard, Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne, British Columbia Premier Christy Clark and Alberta Premier Rachel Notley.

     Following the Paris meeting Trudeau noted the world gathered to fight climate change and its devastating impacts on our earth, our health, our economy, and our very way of life. He proclaimed that the gathering had a common vision to leave a sustainable planet for “our children and grand children” The Prime Minister was pleased Canada and 194 other countries were able to reach a historic, ambitious, and balanced agreement to fight climate change. Trudeau promised to meet with the Premiers within the next 90 days to work on a plan to realize Canada’s international commitments in tackling climate change and transitioning to a low carbon economy. In addition he promised to work with a wide array of stakeholders – and all Canadians – to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, including through carbon pricing.

   As some question the importance of this conversation, researchers and scientists have presented proof that melting ice caps means rising sea levels; threatening coastal populations around the world with some islands at risk of disappearing. Melting arctic soil is opening up sink holes, ruining railways, roads and homes and warmer climes. Scientists say climate change shows up in earlier springs and warmer summers which is good news for sun lovers but warmer waters also means an increase in the number and strength of hurricanes and typhoons. Inland warmer temperatures mean drier weather; many lakes have spent most of the last 15 years at levels well below average; forest fire season is starting earlier and ending later and a longer summer also means more pollen; worst allergies for those who suffer from them.

   A Grenada delegate at the conference Dessima Williams an avid advocate for justice told  participants that small island states like Grenada in the Caribbean can not only get dwarfed in the negotiations but are also some of the nations right on the front line, suffering the most from the effects of global warming. She was there in support of the work of Oxfam International. “The way of life as we knew it, which was relatively stable and known, is no longer the case. Our agriculture, our tourism is at risk because 65% – 63%-65% – of all our physical infrastructure and, most of all, commercial activities are on the coast and that’s getting inundated with the sea. Our airport is at risk, it will go underwater if we have a metre rise.

   While Ms. Williams could not say whether the rich countries understood the plight of Caribbean states, she was confident that over a hundred countries do, and that’s why her delegation asked for a maximum of 1.5C as a tolerable global average temperature so that the small states would not be put at further risk. “I think the more powerful countries, that larger physical mass, may not quite understand the immediacy of the threat and the impact of climate change to small islands, to coastal countries. And we have been fighting to get that message across for many years. I think it’s beginning to sink in a bit but the policymakers, some of them, still feel that there is time and space to manoeuvre because they have big economies, big land mass,” the Grenada delegate continued.

   She reminded the conference that many countries in Africa, across Africa, the Pacific, the Caribbean, have small economies that cannot continuously finance the destruction caused by climate change, neither do they have large land mass where people can in fact escape the ravages of the sea and the rains and so on. “So I think we have an uphill battle to meet in the commons of justice,” she concluded.