Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, at the beginning of this month I was very fortunate to attend COP26, the United Nations Conference of the Parties on climate change with the Minister of ENR and his delegation. In attendance in Glasgow, were leaders and politicians from around the globe with delegates hailing from all walks of life, including industry, NGOs, and activists.
The message from the conference was clear: The world is not on track to limit global warming to the extent agreed upon at COP21 in Paris in 2015. If we carry on as we are, temperatures will continue to rise and we will experience even more catastrophic events such as flooding, forest fires, extreme precipitation, and a loss of unprecedented number of species.
The world needs to drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions over the next decade and reach net zero carbon emissions in order to limit global temperature rise by one and a half degrees by the middle of this century. So far, the outlook is not very promising.
The four main goals of COP26 were this global net zero by 2050 commitment, to adapt to protect communities and natural habitats, to mobilize finance with a minimum of $1 billion committed for climate financing, and a commitment to work together to deliver on these goals.
Commitments were also made to cut methane emissions, address deforestation, and to develop clean technologies. The five sectors focused on at COP26 were power, road transport, hydrogen, steel, and agriculture as these sectors represent more than half of global emissions.
One only has to look in our own backyard to see the impacts of the changing climate firsthand: coastal erosion in Tuktoyaktuk, the extreme fire season of 2014 or last spring's devastating flooding in Simpson and Jean Marie River.
When we look around at the rest of Canada, we see this repeated elsewhere, such as the current flooding in BC that has led to highway washouts and closures, that has cut the city of Vancouver off from the rest of the country.
We cannot wait for the rest of the world to live up to their promises to curb global emissions, and must begin to look for our own solutions here in the North. It is imperative that our government utilizes all avenues of disaster mitigation and adaptation funding and work towards building our communities' resiliency. This would include assessing our communities and infrastructure for risk and incorporating nature-based solutions such as bank stabilization projects or the reestablishment of wetlands.
This government must take a proactive approach to dealing with climate change as it is no longer an issue for the future but is happening here right now. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.