Environment committee  Exactly.

Environment committee  I would have to say that climate change—it's a leaders-driven process—was from the outset something that the leaders, the Chancellor, and the Prime Minister intended to have a real discussion on. Sherpas set up the base camp, but they don't go up to the top of the mountain. That

Environment committee  Are there G8 members who have not signed the accord? Yes, the United States.

Environment committee  No.

Environment committee  Nor India.

Environment committee  The success of the G8 meeting lies in large part in the fact that consensus was achieved on the importance of global targets and the need for each country to establish targets. It was very important to arrive at a consensus with member countries like the United States. With othe

Environment committee  Yes, the environment was the most important topic for the G8. The other topics were economic development in Africa and a dialogue on major international questions, like peace in the Middle East and Afghanistan, a matter that the Prime Minister brought up for discussion just after

Environment committee  Real and meaningful targets, yes.

Environment committee  I think there are a number of things. First, the G8 summit was preceded by the Canada-EU summit, which happened in Berlin on the Monday. Climate change was also on the agenda for that, and we ended up with an agreement with the EU that in effect recognized the commonality of our

Environment committee  The G8 commitments are commitments by leaders, and as such, when leaders say they're going to do something, they follow through. It's not a legal document, but it is a national commitment.

Environment committee  I think the discussion throughout the G8 process, recognized by all of the G8 members and flowing from their work last year at St. Petersburg, acknowledges that all economies have to balance environmental protection and economic growth. That's not a Canadian preoccupation alone;

Environment committee  No. I think the way I would answer that is to say that every economy in the G8 acknowledges--and there's wide agreement on this--that going forward, you need to balance several things. You need to balance economic--

Environment committee  The negotiations, the discussions, were also careful to take note of what global science is telling us, so I think there was an appreciation, again by everybody in the room, that there's a cost to not addressing climate change.

Environment committee  Again, I would be happy to have someone come back from Environment Canada to speak to that.

Environment committee  Again, and with respect, that wasn't something we discussed in the G8 context.