To my understanding, Canada's objectives were for a mandate for negotiating by the end of 2009 a new global agreement to combat climate change after 2012. I think the minister, in various meetings with UN officials, indicated Canada's support of the United Nations process and a willingness to participate to the best of its abilities.
Speaking to my comments earlier, from my interaction with our negotiators and from having the chance to attend a number of the negotiating sessions, whether focused on technology transfer, deforestation, adaptation, or capacity building, I think that the expertise of the negotiators from Environment Canada and their commitment to work towards positive outcomes was very impressive. As I said in my opening remarks, it made me proud as a Canadian to see the dedication and the hard work.
As Mr. Johnson indicated, during the last three or four days the negotiations went on almost non-stop. Our minister and the negotiating teams worked very well late into the evenings, and I think the processes themselves that ended up helping to articulate and to get us a road map and the various benchmarks along the way this coming year were indicative of the fact that Canada did at least achieve its objective, which was realizing the overall objective: the Bali road map, a mandate for a new global agreement by the end of 2009 to combat climate change post-2012.