Address by Prime Minister Paul Martin at the UN Conference on Climate Change

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.

Address by Prime Minister Paul Martin, Office of the Prime Minister, Montreal Quebec, December 7, 2005.