I call the meeting to order.
Good afternoon, everyone. It's a special day, with a lot of new faces at the table today.
Before we get started, I would just like to acknowledge MaryAnn Mihychuk, whom we have on the Liberal side, and Pierre Breton. Welcome to the committee.
Leona, welcome. I don't know if you've had a chance to participate on the environment committee before, so it's good to see you here.
Shannon Stubbs will be joining us.
Today we're starting a study on international leadership. This flows from the pan-Canadian framework on climate change. Last spring our committee decided that we would do a number of short studies, usually about six hearings. For this particular study coming from the pan-Canadian framework, we had determined on February 1 that we would agree to study Canada's international leadership as part of our study on clean growth and climate change in Canada. There are really three pieces that flow from the framework.
The first is delivering on Canada's international climate financial commitments. In this, Canada committed $2.65 billion by 2020 to help the poorest and most vulnerable countries mitigate and adapt to the adverse effects of climate change.
Second, we're looking at acquiring internationally transferred mitigation outcomes. The Paris Agreement had allowed for mitigation outcomes to be transferred between countries, but the mechanisms had not been fully developed, so Canada's first priority was ensuring that any cross-border transfer of mitigation outcomes should be based on rigorous accounting rules to be developed with input from experts.
Finally, engaging in trade and climate policy with our international partners was the third aspect. In that, we talked about how Canada has raised trade and climate policy issues in international forums and is positioning the country as a global leader on clean energy and innovation, as well as aiming to support business opportunities for Canadian clean energy companies.
That was the basis for the six sessions that we have coming up, including today.
With us today we have Environment and Climate Change Canada and Global Affairs Canada. Each department will be given 10 minutes for introductory comments, and then we'll get into our usual questions and answers.
I know many of the department officials have been here before, so I am going to use the yellow cards. When you get to one minute left in your presentation, I will show the yellow card. When you are out of time, I will show the red card and you should just try to wrap up as quickly as possible.
For anyone who is new at the table, the same holds true for you. When you get the red card, wind it up and we'll move on to the next person so that everybody gets a chance to participate in today's dialogue.
With that, we will go to Environment and Climate Change Canada's Isabelle Bérard. Would you like to start?