Ellen: I would wish that our nation would speak as one and step into our former position as a world leader on environmental matters such as this pressing issue.
Sarah: Ontario clearly has to come up with a new climate change strategy that is current to the world situation. The Minister has more or less committed to this in the nature of his discussions and it is certainly my expectation that Ontario will get its act together in 2015. Of course, it's my job to monitor and report on such a plan to the Legislature.
Sue: To the contrary, in 20 years we have not been able to achieve a consistent approach at the national level. The reality of the situation is that detailed aspects of climate change mitigation may have to vary considerably among the regions. A sub-national consensus may in fact be the better way to achieve progress across a wide geographic area.
Sue: The central negotiations among the countries were minimally adequate but to most people, disappointing. I really felt there was progress on the sub-national initiatives and at this point it seems that the sub-nationals are a completely independent way of achieving progress on climate change.
Samantha: I think the most impressive thing was the dedication and commitment of civil society and business groups and business groups and other people who were actually not part of the negotiations. There was a clear sense of frustration with the lack of progress at the national negotiating table but the commitment of these other groups was heartening.
Mark: My job is to keep an eye on climate change policy development in Ontario and report to the legislature. It was clear that the MOECC from Ontario was going to Lima to advance ideas relating to sub-national activities and it was important for me to observe how they were advanced, and how successful they were.
There is clear reluctance from countries like China who don't allow their sub-nationals a degree of flexibility.
Thank you Ellen: It definitely involves North and South America, the conference in July involves the entire Western hemisphere. There is also interest from European sub-nationals and at least one African so far.
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Good afternoon! Thank you for joining me to talk about my trip to Lima!
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@Ecocommish #ECOLive is the Summit expected to produce actions, or more negotiations? (time is ticking!)by EileenOttawa via twitter 12/17/2014 7:09:47 PM