A key track in Canada’s approach to combating climate change involves the country’s active participation in international negotiations toward an agreement on a new global post-2012 climate change regime.
Throughout these ongoing negotiations Canada will play an active and constructive role, while protecting its core interests, including ensuring that Canada’s economy is not unduly harmed in the development of a new post-2012 agreement. Canada will work closely with the United States, seeking to align the countries’ positions where possible, to build a consensus among major economies on a pragmatic outcome at Copenhagen – one that achieves verifiable and lasting reductions in global greenhouse gas emissions.
Canada is committed to the negotiating track established in December 2007 at the 13th Congress of the Parties (COP) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Bali, which seeks a comprehensive agreement with commitments from all developed and developing countries. Under the Bali track, developed countries have agreed to consider making comparable efforts to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, whereas developing countries have agreed to consider “nationally appropriate” actions to reduce emissions.
Following the most recent COP, in Poznan in December 2008, countries have entered into final negotiations which will continue to be ongoing throughout 2009 through to COP 15 in Copenhagen in December 2009. Canada’s approach during these negotiations is founded on the goals and actions established in the country’s domestic policies, all of which reflect the realities of the Canadian and North American economies. Canada will seek that major emitters make commitments to deviate significantly from their business-as-usual climate pathways while ensuring comparable action among countries.
Canada’s negotiating mandate is based on five key principles:
Canada is participating actively and constructively in the Major Economies Forum. The Forum was launched in March 2009 by the United States to facilitate a candid dialogue among key developed and developing countries, help generate the political leadership necessary to achieve a successful outcome at the United Nations climate change negotiations in Copenhagen. The Forum will also seek to advance the exploration of concrete initiatives and joint ventures that increase the supply of clean energy while cutting greenhouse gas emissions.