A People’s Submission on Climate Change

Ottawa – A network of leading non-governmental organizations has made a people’s submission to the United Nations on behalf of over 150,000 Canadians who have signed the KyotoPlus petition on Canada’s climate change commitments. The submission was made in light of the January 31st deadline for countries to indicate what they will be pledging to do under the Copenhagen Accord.

“The Canadian government has been consistently out of step with the majority in Parliament, the Canadian public, and provincial governments when it comes to climate change,” says Dale Marshall of the David Suzuki Foundation. “For this reason we feel that it is important to make a submission to the UN on what Canada really wants to do, which is contribute to a fair, ambitious and binding deal.”

The Climate Action Network Canada believes that the Copenhagen Accord is nowhere near the international deal that will be needed to prevent dangerous climate change. World leaders must use 2010 to negotiate a legally-binding agreement under the transparent United Nations framework that includes a second phase of the Kyoto Protocol. In the meantime this submission to the Copenhagen Accord is symbolic of where Canadians want their government to be.

“Canadians want the world to know our government does not represent our views on climate action,” says John Bennett, Executive Director of Sierra Club Canada. “Only through this people’s submission to the United Nations will we be heard.”

“We must send a clear message to this government that enough is enough. ‘Do Nothing’ is not an acceptable position in the face of this global challenge,” says Graham Saul of Climate Action Network Canada.

The People’s Submission, which will be submitted today to the UN to be considered alongside country submissions, includes commitments to reach far more ambitious targets to reduce greenhouse gas pollution within Canada as well as commits Canada to taking responsibility for its fair share of the financing that will be necessary to help poorer countries adapt to climate change and adopt clean energy technologies.