Mr. Speaker, I thank my esteemed colleagues.
First, I would like to sincerely thank the minister and her team for the work that was done in Paris with the rest of the world. I am sure that that important work was difficult at times and very exhausting.
I would like to start by setting the context of where we are headed in this next, hopefully new, conversation around climate change in this country by suggesting that there are three factors at play.
One, for the minister and her government, the bar is set incredibly low based on the previous government's inaction, denial, delay, and dithering on doing anything about climate change. Therefore, that is helpful, because almost anything seems like something.
Two, I would suggest that the expectations of Canadians are quite high. After so many years of failed attempts to address climate change, Canadians are now looking to the new government for real steps, concrete action, and resolution of this constant myth of the economy versus the environment.
Three, I would suggest that the need to be effective and satisfy our commitments to the world has never been greater. As we have known for many years, the costs of dealing with climate change only go up the further we delay and the longer we wait to act.
It is important to recognize what future steps we must take by looking somewhat to the past. Canadian governments have failed on two significant fronts with respect to climate change.
The initial failure was to over-promise and under-deliver. Commitments were made to the world at Kyoto by a previous Liberal government with no real plan or intention to follow through on them. The results were quite demonstrative. A commitment to go below 6% of 1990 levels resulted in an increase of more than 30% of our levels. By anybody's measure, that is not success.
This should have been a great teacher to the government that came forward, but unfortunately, as the previous government took office in 2006, we saw a government decide to at first suggest that there was no problem at all, that climate change was a myth and a socialist scheme designed by the UN. It was wonderful to hear the Conservatives actually quoting the UN earlier today and yesterday. However, that was a true missed opportunity. We now see an economy suffering greatly by not having much in the way of alternatives to the energy sector, and not having much in the way of answering for the half a million manufacturing jobs that we have lost in this country over the last nine years.
However, it is not right for us to simply look back at what could have been. We have to look forward. Voters, clearly in the last election on October 19, voted for change.
What is different, a skeptical Canadian voter could say, about this agreement? What is different than the previous efforts at the United Nations? What is different by previous efforts of previous governments?
One would suggest that the goal has been placed quite ambitiously. Initially, the Canadian government came into this conference with a 2°C ambition, to keep global temperatures from rising above that, but left the conference committing to 1.5°C, which is very ambitious by anybody's standard.
It is important to note that when the world had gathered together and signed this treaty, all showed up with various levels of commitment, including Canada. The current Liberal government took the previous Conservative government's goals to Paris, not having established new targets, and said that was the floor but it would get beyond that.
I will quote the eminent Dale Marshall, who said:
Current pledges made by countries to reduce emissions are too weak to stay below the safe 1.5 degree warming limit. We are in great danger of being locked into dangerous climate change, as the Paris agreement has no requirement for these commitments to be reviewed or strengthened in the near future.
The concern, if we pull away from the minister's particular comments, is that the world's commitments right now, that we signed onto in Paris, lead to a 2.7°C warming of the earth's atmosphere, which every climate scientist on the planet will tell us would be disastrous for our environment and our economy. Clearly, we need to do more.
We also know that the key elements of success from those countries that have gone ahead and actually followed through on their commitments are twofold. One is that it actually reduces their climate impact on the planet, and also improves the strength and diversity of their economy. It is the true win-win, which is so rare in politics.
I want to take one small moment to compare the current commitments from the government toward those solutions. Oftentimes, the struggle with talking about climate change is that it is about parts per million, reducing carbon impact, and, as my Conservative colleague just framed the conversation, it is somehow about pain and sacrifice, as opposed to the opportunity that this challenge offers us to have a cleaner, greener, more efficient economy.
Often, our friends in Norway are held out. They have an $8-billion commitment over the next number of years, which works out to about $400 per person in that country. The recent announcement by the minister of Canada's commitment of $100 million over five years is $1.61 per person. Therefore, Norway's effort at $400 and Canada's effort at $1.61 leave lots of room for more ambition, more hope, more hard work, more energy into the green energy solutions that we need. Truly, this is an opportunity we must seize. A lot of the decisions that we will be making as a Parliament in the coming months will not impact on us, but, in fact, on future generations.
If we are to hold sacred that trust that the voters have placed in us to do the right thing, to improve our economy, and to answer our commitments not just to the world but to those future generations, we must strengthen the commitments made by the government to this point. We must gather the forces of our entrepreneurial activity and energy in this country and finally give Canadians that sense of hope that the world can respect what Canada's commitment means, that when we say we are going to do something, we do it, and we follow through with the energy and enthusiasm Canadians are known for.