Climate Treaty Parties

In case you missed it, the first meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol (video) started yesterday.

Here is part of the press release:

"Canada will host the first meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol in Montreal in conjunction with the eleventh session of the Conference of the Parties to the Climate Change Convention.

The conference is an historic event. Not only will the parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) be meeting for the 11th time, but 2005 also marks the entry into force of the Kyoto Protocol.

At Montreal, the first ever meeting of the Parties to the Protocol (MOP) will be held parallel to the Conference of the Parties to the Convention (COP). The United Nations Climate Change Conference is set to be the largest intergovernmental climate conference since the Kyoto Protocol was adopted in 1997.

Some 8,000–10,000 participants are expected.

Now that pan-European emissions trading has begun and the Clean Development Mechanism, as a tool to promote sustainable development and combat climate change, is operational, the conference is also attracting unprecedented business interest. "
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Canada has a real interest in climate change. Many would believe that Canada will primarily profit from a warming planet by inheriting much of the weather that occurs in its neighbor to the south.

However, a new WWF report concludes that the effects may not be so benign.

2°C of global warming is too hot for Canada’s fish and forests
30 Nov 2005
Montreal, Canada

Canada’s Atlantic fish will be squeezed into ever smaller patches of cool water, endangered Atlantic salmon will be doomed, and key boreal forest species will be stranded as their natural habitats erode, if the globe’s temperature is allowed to rise too far, says WWF.

A new WWF report, launched at the Eleventh session of the United Nations Conference of the Parties to the Climate Change Convention (COP-11), examines the impacts of a 2°C (3.6°F) increase in global average temperature on the Canadian fishery and forestry sectors.

While various studies have looked at ecosystem-wide impacts, this is the first time that scientists have studied the impacts of a 2°C warming on the distribution of individual species.

Unless aggressive action is taken to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, global warming will rise to 2°C above pre-industrial times, a threshold at which climate change impacts would become unmanageable for nature and people.

The potential for dramatic change in Ontario's forests is alarming. Sugar maple, black spruce and jack pine are projected to decline because their habitats move northwards too quickly. Production of maple syrup may be significantly reduced if temperatures remain above freezing during the sugaring-off period, although a small contribution to the GDP, effects on local economies and regional heritage could be large.

And warmer, drier conditions are expected to increase both frequency and severity of fires and insect outbreaks in Canada’s boreal forests. This could result in younger forests overall which reduces the amount of harvestable timber.

“If we are to avoid irreparable damage to Canada’s nature and economy we need to act now to slow the increase in global temperature,” says Jennifer Morgan, Director of WWF’s Global Climate Change Programme. “The Montreal conference is the moment where leaders need to take a deep breath and make a formal decision to negotiate more action and commitments to cut CO2 emissions.”

Of course, the World's largest contributor to the problem

is not a Party to the Treaty.

It has its own response to Climate Change.

And it's a military response,

And it's not a party.



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