Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Your Excellencies. I appreciate your being here.
As you know, the committee has been looking at a private member's bill, Bill C-311, but your comments today are focused more on the general issue of climate change and the negotiations for a new international agreement on climate change as we approach Copenhagen, which is just weeks away.
I'd like to focus, first of all, on a collective position of the EU and the U.K. as part of that collective position's targets. What is the importance of having a collective position? What would be the disadvantage of each of the 27 countries having their own position on climate change?