Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
First of all, Mr. Mulroney, welcome to the committee. I have no doubt that today you are going to promote this media release and the agreement on climate change that was signed in Germany. Since your signature is on it, you are also thereby required to promote the agreement, which you probably consider a success. Unfortunately, I am having a very hard time this morning seeing anything positive in this agreement.
After the summit, Chancellor Merkel said this:
The real question is: will we be farther along at the end of this summit? This would mean that we accept that climate change is a problem caused by human beings and that we need a process in which the UN is involved.
Mr. Mulroney, it seems to me that we have some way to go. I was in Kyoto in 1997 and those declarations had already been made and accepted by the international community. I am having difficulty seeing any progress. You are saying that we have a global problem that requires a long-term solution. But no concrete objectives or timelines came out of the G8 meeting.
Really, was the G8 summit meeting nothing but a rehash of the Asia-Pacific Partnership that is presently under discussion and in which Canada is very interested? But the partnership has no objectives or timelines to fight climate change either.