24 September 2007
New YorkPrime Minister Stephen Harper today issued the following statement, delivered at the United Nations Secretary-General's High-Level Event on Climate Change. The Prime Minister spoke before world leaders at the session on technology:
"Good day Ladies and Gentlemen,
I'd like to thank Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon for inviting us to this high-level meeting on climate change.
We are building on the dynamic created by the G8 and APEC summits to promote international cooperation in the fight against global warming.
There is an emerging consensus on the need for a new, effective and flexible climate change framework, one that commits all the world's major emitters to real targets and concrete action against global greenhouse gas emissions.
Among other things, a new international framework must stimulate the development and deployment of clean, low-carbon energy technologies.
In the near-term, the world will continue to rely heavily on fossil fuels. As a major, reliable producer, Canada will play an increasingly important role in global energy security.
We therefore have a responsibility to find cleaner and more efficient ways to convert hydrocarbons into energy.
Canada is working on a variety of strategies, but one of the most exciting is carbon capture and storage.
It holds great potential for major emission reductions at home and abroad.
Pilot projects are underway in western Canada. CO2 is being pumped deep underground into rock formations that have been drained of their oil and gas.
Trapping it there creates a virtuous energy cycle: We take hydrocarbons out, tap their energy, and put the emissions back.
The Government of Canada and the Province of Alberta have established a Carbon Capture and Storage Task Force that will develop practical options for government and industry to work together to implement this technology on a large scale in Canada.
We are also increasing Canada's supply of renewable energy by investing in energy sources like wind, biomass, low impact hydroelectricity, geothermics, solar photovoltaics and ocean tides.
But the development of clean, alternative energy sources is not solely the responsibility of governments and taxpayers.
Indeed, we will not succeed unless and until the challenge is taken up in the marketplace.
Private capital and entrepreneurial creativity drive technological development.
The commercialization of clean energy is already happening. Government's main role is to design tax and regulatory systems that enable the free market to work.
In Canada, our Government has created a clean technology fund as part of a new regulatory framework that sets mandatory emission reduction targets for our major industries for the first time ever.
The Fund will be used primarily to finance investments in technology and infrastructure that are highly likely to result in substantial, near-term emission reductions.
The core principle of Canada's approach to climate change is balance.
We are balancing environmental protection with economic growth.
We are balancing public and private sector involvement in clean energy technology development.
And we are promoting a balanced international approach to emissions reduction that engages all major emitters while respecting the unique characteristics of their economies.
The challenge we face is global. The solution is global.
And Canada is committed to working with the international community and the United Nations to develop the targets and the technologies that will overcome the challenge of climate change.
Thank you."
