Canada among countries approving historic climate change pact in Paris

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PARIS, FRANCE (NEWS 1130) – After two weeks of talks, a final 31-page draft of a landmark global climate change agreement has been presented and accepted by delegates at the UN climate talks in Paris. Hundreds of diplomats and politicians poured over the agreement which has been ratified.

Loud applause erupted in the conference hall outside of Paris after French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius gaveled the agreement Saturday. Some delegates started crying. Others embraced.

But not everyone is happy with the breakthrough. Thousands of protesters, under the close watch of riot police, held hands beneath the Eiffel Tower denouncing the accord, saying it’s too weak to save the planet.

Federal Green Party Elizabeth May, who is in Paris for the talks, says it’s a good deal, admittedly not perfect, but it does include a goal to cap the global temperature increases to just two degrees.

“We have a very easy way to reduce emissions fast without making anyone angry and that is that we still waste more than half the energy we use.”

May adds 30 per cent of our greenhouse gases come from what amounts to leaky buildings so we need to update building codes and why not remind people to add solar cells as well as insulation to homes wherever possible

She is adamant that acting now is key because the lag time from the exhaust coming out of your car to its eventual impact on the earth’s atmosphere is years.

“We don’t want Calgarians to go through the kind of flood that they experienced recently. We don’t want that happening every couple of years and we don’t want wildfires in British Columbia that blanket up with smoke so we can’t breathe.”

She believes, unlike with the previous Conservative government, the Trudeau Liberals have the political will to make the necessary moves.

“We have the building blocks to put together the kind of climate targets that are far more ambitious than those left behind by the previous government that we can get the provinces on board to give us a thumbs up on those.”

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