Canada to host U.N. forum on climate change in fall

A formal announcement of the Nov. 7-18 conference is expected to be a key element in the federal government Kyoto kickoff here by Prime Minister Paul Martin and Environment Minister Stéphane Dion, government sources confirmed.

Between 4,000 and 5,000 climate scientists, activists and officials from more than 180 countries are expected to attend the 11th session of what's known as the Conference of the Parties, a meeting normally held annually to discuss the 1992 United Nations treaty on climate change that led to the Kyoto Protocol on greenhouse gases.

But COP-11, as this year's meeting is known, will be first such session after Kyoto officially goes into effect February 16. Canada and 38 industrialized countries are committed to cutting their combined emissions of carbon dioxide to five per cent below 1990 levels throughout the 2008-2012 period with our national reduction target at six per cent.

"This will be the true international launch for the Kyoto global regime," says climate policy analyst John Drexhage a former federal climate change negotiator who attended all 10 previous COP sessions.

Sources said Martin is also being urged to breathe new energy into the climate change issue in Canada in recent announcements by naming a new ambassador for the environment, a post currently held by former Commons speaker Gilbert Parent.

Dion's contribution to Wednesday's launch includes exchanging Kyoto congratulatory video messages via satellite with his British counterpart Margaret Beckett, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and other prominent climate change leaders.

But much of the government's strategy to meet Kyoto targets won't be unveiled until the Feb. 23 federal budget. That leaves the COP-11 meeting as the key item.

Drexhage said the forum, the location of which has not been announced, must tackle several contentious Kyoto issues, including making the agreement legally binding internationally, deciding how to verify reductions and working out details for swapping emission credits.