A major regional climate summit has wrapped up in Toronto. The Climate Summit of the Americas brought together more than 60 Pan American jurisdictions along with environmental groups and industry.
The aim: to work together to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Ontario, Quebec and California kicked off the climate conference with a call for action......suggesting that if their respective federal governments won't act, they will. Quebec and California recently joined a cap and trade carbon pricing system. Ontario is also expected to sign on.
There were calls for prime minister Stephen Harper's government to do more to combat climate change. But even his federal environment minister decided to skip the Toronto summit.
The keynote speaker at the summit was form vice president Al Gore, who brought a dire warning.
"Today around the world we will put another 110 million tons of global warming pollution into the thin shell of atmosphere that surrounds our planet, spewing it into the sky as if the sky is an open sewer."
During his speech, Gore laid out three questions on the climate crisis--must we change, can we change and will we change. Hss answer was yes to all three.
On a more optimistic note he said fighting climate change will be a boon to the global economy. He said the cost of renewable energy resources is plummeting faster than anyone expected.
A climate action statement was signed by Ontario and 22 other states and regions, suggesting a consensus on the urgency of fighting climate change. It comes ahead of a major UN climate conference later this year.
