Lima Climate Conference Discusses Change

THUNDER BAY – The issue of global climate change is making its way to the top of the agenda for business, provincial governments, and many Canadians. Laurentien University Professor Dr. David Robinson says that as an economist he looks at the issue of climate change and sees increasing movement by both business and governments, especially China and the United States

This week, twelve-thousand delegates are headed into the COP 20 Climate Conference.

Planet earth is “moving towards the tipping point” warns the President of the United Nations General Assembly at UN climate talks in Peru. President Kutesa says “it is called for world leaders to take urgent action towards a climate agreement that promotes socio-economic development in a sustainable manner”.

Briefing reporters in Lima ahead of his address to the high-level segment of the 20th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 20) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), Sam Kutesa said that climate change threatens the very existence of humankind.

“Our planet earth is warming. Greenhouse gases concentrations are on the increase. Snow is diminishing. Ice is also diminishing. Sea-levels are rising. Droughts are becoming longer and frequent. Floods and landslides are increasing,” Mr. Kutesa said.

“There is little doubt that human activity is primarily responsible for this. Inevitably, this calls for our collective urgent actions towards mitigation and adaptation,” he added.

COP 20, which opened on 1 December, brings together the 196 Parties to the UNFCCC, which is the parent treaty of the landmark 1997 Kyoto Protocol, in an attempt to hammer out the new universal treaty, which would enter force by 2020. The Conference wraps up this Friday.

Calling the Lima Conference “a decisive step” toward achieving a universal, binding agreement in Paris in December 2015, Mr. Kutesa underscored the need to transform the current economic and social models into low carbon and ultimately climate neutral economies.

“I hope the outcome will be ambitious and that commitments will be bold,” he said.

On a related note, Mr. Kutesa said the General Assembly will soon start negotiations on the UN post-2015 development agenda.

“Our efforts towards addressing the three dimensions of sustainable development – social, economic and environmental- clearly relate to what has brought us to Lima,” Mr. Kutesa added.

Dr. David Robinson an economic professor from Laurentien University talks about the issue of climate change from the standpoint of an economist.

David Robinson is Director of the Institute for Northern Ontario Research and Development at Laurentian University. As a leading expert on Northern Ontario economic development, he was the first person to identify and promote the Northern Ontario Mining Supply and Service sector as our leading sector. He was also the first person to propose Northern Ontario School of Architecture. He has consulted for forest-dependent communities and written on the economics of community forestry. He is best known publically for monthlycolumns in Northern Ontario Business Magazine, and in Sudbury Mining Solutions, the trade journal for the local Mining Supply and Services sector  which he helped found. He does frequent interviews in broadcast media has been a guest on TVO’s Agenda, several times and is often a featured speaker at conferences and events.