It’s not too late.
Posted November 6
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is to add Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, to the list of cities he plans to visit in the coming days.
Mr. Trudeau will take part in several meetings in Asia in the coming weeks: Summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, G20 Summit in Bali, Indonesia, meeting of leaders of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation in Bangkok, Thailand, and the Francophonie Summit in Djerba, Tunisia. It wouldn’t be too complicated to add COP27 to your program in extremis. Let him say a word to his British counterpart Rishi Sunak. The newly appointed Prime Minister had initially announced that he would not be going to COP27, but popular discontent forced him to reconsider his plans. With reason. The climate crisis should be at the top of every political leader’s agenda.
Yes, it may seem contradictory to encourage a head of state to travel thousands of kilometers by plane to save the planet. But the presence of Mr. Trudeau at this international summit has a symbolic weight that we would be wrong to neglect.
True, cynicism is high with regard to these major annual meetings. There are many who believe, like Sweden’s Greta Thunberg, that the COP is more an exercise in greenwashing than a place where concrete commitments are made.
However, the COPs are more than “blah blah blah”, to use the words of the young Swedish activist.
It is the only meeting where the 197 leaders of the planet are gathered in the same place to discuss the climate.
And even if the industrialized countries are struggling to achieve their GHG reduction targets, we should be happy that we have at least succeeded in agreeing on the objectives. Although they have not always been binding, they nevertheless require governments to be transparent, because they must demonstrate the efforts made and explain publicly how they will go about achieving them. Without the COP, the international community would never have agreed on a reduction target of 1.5 degrees Celsius in Paris in 2015.
In the Prime Minister’s Office, Mr. Trudeau’s absence was justified by stating that “leaders do not generally attend every summit”. However, the list of Heads of State who will take part in COP27 is impressive. In addition to the British Prime Minister, there are French President Emmanuel Macron, the new Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and US President Joe Biden. The absence of Justin Trudeau will be noticed.
The Canadian delegation is not an orphan. It will be led by the hypercompetent Minister of the Environment and Climate Change, Steven Guilbeault, a veteran of the COPs. If his presence is good news, it is not equivalent to that of a Prime Minister who has the power to decide, to improve his commitments or to break a deadlock at the last minute.
The same problem will arise with the Quebec delegation, which will be led by Environment Minister Benoit Charette, and which will be joined by the super-Minister of the Economy and Natural Resources, Pierre Fitzgibbon.
Prime Minister Legault will also be conspicuous by his absence and we would like to tell him the same thing as his federal counterpart: your presence is important, it sends a message.
This is a serious time for the planet, and the presence of Prime Ministers at this conference is essential.
Especially since COP27 is taking place on the African continent, a corner of the world cruelly affected by climate change. It’s a very funny message that our prime ministers are sending by not going. Leaders representing a rich, developed and polluting country have a moral duty to listen to what African states, very vulnerable to natural disasters caused by the climate crisis, have to say.
The theme of social justice will indeed be at the heart of COP27 where we will discuss the losses and damage caused by climate change. A group of countries led by Pakistan — victim of spectacular floods last summer that killed more than a thousand people and caused damages estimated at more than 30 billion dollars — are calling for financial assistance from the G20 countries which are s would add to the $100 billion per year fund already earmarked for climate change adaptation and GHG reduction.
However, Canada’s contribution to this fund is too modest. In 2021, Canada has committed $5.3 billion over five years. For comparison, Germany’s total commitment amounts to at least 6 billion euros per year by 2025. A country as wealthy as Canada can and must do better
Over the next 12 days, international media attention will be on Egypt. Hopefully COP27 will help mobilize people to push governments to do more. Beyond agreements and treaties, this is the best the COP can achieve.
Corrigendum
An earlier version of this text stated that the floods in Pakistan had killed more than one million people. It should have read “more than a thousand”.