Montreal, Quebec, Canada November 28, 2005

The COP11 has opened today in Montreal. This report will deal with elements from the opening session and the follow up Press Conference.

Mr. Richard Kinley, the officer-in-Charge, United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the Interim Head of the organization, following the passing away of Mrs. Yoke Waller-Hunter, said:
“2005 has emerged as a remarkable year for international climate change policy. The entry into force of the Kyoto Protocol in February opened a new phase in international efforts to protect global climate. The first meeting of the Parties to the KP will open shortly, marking a formal start of work under the treaty. International business leaders at the World Economic Forum identified climate change as one of the three most critical issues facing the world. World Leaders at the UN World Summit placed CC at the top of the political agenda and reconfirmed their commitment to action under the UNFCCC. This Provides guidance and a strong positive momentum upon which to build and thereby close 2005 with a significant achievement here in Montreal.”

Dr. Stephane Dion, member of the Canadian Parliament and Canadian Minister of the Environment, was elected as expected to be President of the Conference and its head for the coming year.
He said: “…we have good will and the desire to move forward. I know this because in preparing for the conference, I have traveled around the world with my team, especially Canada’s Ambassador for Climate Change Jaques Bilodeau. I have been impressed with what we’ve heard and seen - on every continent, countries, on their own, are taking decisive action to mitigate the adverse effects of CC.”

In the Press Release he elaborates: In my discussions with countries from around the world over the past eight month, President Dion continues, it has become clear that there is a growing sense of the need for action. Individual citizens and their governments have underlined their concerns about rising energy prices, energy security, and the growing scientific evidence of the evidence of the impact of CC.”

Personally, I was left flabbergasted on how Dr. Dion translates worries about price and security of supply of oil to the kind of understanding needed in order to avoid the continuing wasteful use of oil? Did he ever consider that those that pay more for their oil, i.e. in Europe, actually do use less oil?

President Dion puts forth his vision: “Based on my travels and meetings with you, it appears to me that our work here at the conference might be focused on three objectives - we have named them the three “I”s - IMPLEMENT, IMPROVE, INNOVATE.” In French it is the three “A”s - APPLICATION, AMELIORATION, AVENIR, and he invites others to contribute similarly three letters for their languages.

The concept stands for:

- Implement The Kyoto Protocol.

- Improve The Operation Of The Convention And Of The Kyoto Protocol.
Here he talks of strengthening the Clean Development Mechanism, and in making progress on key areas such as Adaptation and Technology. The last two points lead him to the third leg of his concept.

- Innovate For The Future.

Having to listen to the above and with bad feelings in my heart because of the unraveling situation in Canada’s political life, with misgivings that Dr. Dion will be able to lead the UNFCCC/MOP endeavor, I waited for the Press conference.

With serious delay, when the press conference finally materialized, we heard more of the same.
In effect it got only worse. Under “adaptation” the incoming President sees as a positive example the Canadian oil industry idea of CO2 sequestration which is nothing less then the re-injection of the CO2 created in the process of leaching out the heavy crudes from the Canadian tar-sands. This is dandy but a very limited case where it is indeed possible to re-inject the CO2, while this indeed helps the oil industry to produce more oil. This obviously has no equivalent in Ohio, the USA, or in China, where power generation from burning coal generates immense quantities of CO2, or what happens in transportation world wide. Dr. Dion suggesting that Alberta, Canada, the political culprit that is in the process of removing him from the presidency of this organization, is also the factor that will move Canada in the direction of implementing the requirements of the KP (he said they will provide for 50% of the CO2 emissions reduction of Canada), it was painful for my intelligence because I just was offended for him - he being the politician that will principally not use straight talk.

My question to the President was if he does not feel that the political developments came about because of the interests of the oil industry at large, have not also made it impossible for him to lead as a result of the loss of Canada’s credibility? His answer was that according to the IEA there will be still use of oil in the future, so the help from the oil industry is indeed very important. Fine, and what now?

Prof. Kinley volunteered that one can expect that Canada will work with Australia, New Zealand, Japan, the USA to find solutions for post 2012. This reflects probably to the no-content statement made by Australia in the plenary whose sole purpose was probably to reintroduce the Umbrella Group that includes above nations plus Russia and the Ukraine. On the plenary we will return in a later dispatch.
For now, I simply feel like retracting all the nice things I said about Canada in the past. I am saying this while also repeating that my feeling is that the Canadian upheaval was engineered by industry interests from outside Canada and the timing strangely coincidental with foreseeable derailment of this conference.