Notley in Paris for United Nations climate summit

She was referring to the fact that any legally binding climate change treaty in the USA would have to be approved by the Republican-controlled Senate, which is essentially a non-starter. “It’s nice to have a friendly face and that happened immediately after we first met. I knew that I could always turn to you in a crowded room and get “l’heure juste” – have a little insight on what was going to happen next”. Instead, the president of the Coal Association of Canada is urging the NDP government to use its Climate Change Emissions Management Fund, which large emitters will pay into when they can’t hit their GHG emissions targets, to invest in new technologies to retrofit the plants.

Environment Minister Catherine McKenna told media just days before the Paris climate summit that it would be “unreasonable” for Canada to have a greenhouse gas emissions reduction target and be unable to meet it. It remains to be seen whether the Federal government can successfully bridge the differences on the climate change that exist across the differently situated provinces and work with the provinces to begin the inner workings of a national carbon program.

“Everyone wants the United States to be part of this treaty and… there are political realities in the United States”, said McKenna.

Rachel Notley spoke Saturday morning ahead of her departure. When asked recently by CBC why the provinces figure so prominently in the global fight against climate change, Manitoba Premier Greg Selinger answered that it’s the provinces that have the policy levers and are responsible for much of Canada’s emissions.

Notley and other provincial leaders will join Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as part of the Canadian delegation to the French capital for COP21 to address what Notley called “one of the most pressing issues the world is facing”.

Some provinces have already unveiled bold plans for reducing emissions, she noted.

She adds that Canada’s renewed commitment to taking action on climate change is in itself a step forward. On Tuesday, his Liberal government said Canada would resettle 10,000 Syrian refugees by the end of the year and another 15,000 by the end of February.

In September, Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff committed her country to slashing greenhouse gas emissions by 42 per cent on 2005 levels by 2030, as well as rapidly expanding renewable energy. “But words must be backed by a plan and real action”.

Canada is now on track to fall far short of the 2020 reduction targets it agreed to at the last global climate summit in Copenhagen in 2009.

Leaders of 53 countries including India deliberated measures to combat terrorism and how to remove hurdles to seal a climate deal in Paris on the opening day of the Commonwealth Summit here today in this Mediterranean island of Malta.