In preparation for Bali, here's an intro and a video retrospective of some highlights of the 2005 UNFCCC Conference in Montréal, of which Stéphane Dion was President.United Nations Climate Change Conference
(COP 11 and CMP 1)
28 November to 9 December 2005
Palais des Congrès de Montréal
Canada hosted 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 was an historic event. The Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) met for the 11th time, while marking the entry into force of the Kyoto Protocol. At Montreal, the first ever Conference of the Parties serving as the Meeting of the Parties to the Protocol (CMP) ran parallel to the Conference of the Parties to the Convention (COP). The United Nations Climate Change Conference was the largest intergovernmental climate conference since the Kyoto Protocol was adopted in 1997. Some 10,000 participants attended.
The conference attracted unprecedented business interest as a result of two operation trading systems: the pan-European emissions trading scheme and the Clean Development Mechanism, a tool to promote sustainable development and combat climate change.
United Nations Climate Change Conference agrees on future critical steps to tackle climate change
Montreal, 10 December 2005--The United Nations Climate Change Conference closed with the adoption of more than forty decisions that will strengthen global efforts to fight climate change. Reflecting on the success of Montreal 2005, the Conference President, Canadian Environment Minister Stéphane Dion said: “Key decisions have been made in several areas. The Kyoto Protocol has been switched on, a dialogue about the future action has begun, parties have moved forward work on adaptation and advanced the implementation of the regular work programme of the Convention and of the Protocol.”
Source: http://unfccc.int/meetings/cop_11/items/3394.php
Opening plenary
After being formally elected as President, Stéphane Dion speaks at the opening plenary of the 2005 UNFCCC in Montréal. (English/français. 2 parts)
Opening press conference
Stéphane Dion and UNFCCC Acting Executive Secretary Richard Kinley at the press conference for the opening of the 2005 UNFCCC in Montréal. Part 4 ends with the World Wildlife Fund panda delivering a message and a "big cuddly hug" for Président Dion. (English/français. 4 parts)
Closing press conference
Stéphane Dion and Richard Kinley at UNFCCC closing press conference - 6:45 AM on December 10, 2005 after a gruelling all-night session.
"The United Nations Climate Change Conference closed with the adoption of more than forty decisions that will strengthen global efforts to fight climate change. Reflecting on the success of Montreal 2005, the Conference President, Canadian Environment Minister Stéphane Dion said: 'Key decisions have been made in several areas. The Kyoto Protocol has been switched on, a dialogue about the future action has begun, parties have moved forward work on adaptation and advanced the implementation of the regular work programme of the Convention and of the Protocol.'"
http://unfccc.int/meetings/cop_11/items/3394.php
(English/français. 3 parts)
Dion Hailed Saviour of Kyoto Protocol(Photo courtesy IISD)
Canada's Environment Minister [Stéphane Dion] is being hailed an international "hero" who withstood fierce resistance to find agreement to extend mandatory pollution limits on most of the world's worst offenders.
Environmentalists are praising Stéphane Dion, chair of the UN Climate Change Conference, and his advisors for clinching a deal that will commit 35 industrialized nations to deeper greenhouse gas emission reductions when the Kyoto Protocol targets elapse in 2012. The United States and Australia are the only major emitters that refused to sign the pact.
"Stéphane Dion should go down as a world hero for making this happen," says John Bennett, a senior policy advisor for the Sierra Club of Canada. "All credit goes to him and his negotiators."
The deal is the crowning achievement of the two-week international summit in Montreal that finished in the early hours of Dec. 10.
Source: Embassy Magazine, December 14, 2005
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