NRTEE 20th Anniversary Forum
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On October 30th, 2008, the National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy (NRTEE) commemorated its twentieth anniversary by holding a forum to discuss our country’s next climate-policy agenda. The forum, Securing Canada’s Future in a Climate Changing World, gave one hundred leading Canadians a rare chance to discuss how climate change would affect Canada’s environmental and economic future. Anticipating a renewed interest and commitment to climate change action in Canada and abroad, the Forum sought to consider what priorities and steps are needed to secure our future in three key areas—ecosystems, the energy-economy, and the Arctic—in the face of growing, expected climate change. Event Highlights Video[jwplayer mediaid=”21454″]The NRTEE forum spanned the three round table sessions involving more than forty participants led by three moderators and the Forum Chair, Pierre Marc Johnson. Over one hundred people joined in the Forum during the day. Participants represented the full array of interests, perspectives, and leadership involved in climate change or environmental/economic issues, and public policy. They came from industry, the environmental community, government, academia, the media, and public policy think tanks. They came from every Canadian province and territory, as well as the US, the UK, Germany and Mexico. They were activists and advocates; experts and columnists; public servants and politicians; ambassadors and academics; CEOs and environmentalists. They shared an abiding interest in the issue of climate change and what it means for Canada’s economic and environmental security.
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Climate Forward:
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Round Table 1 – Securing Canada’s Ecosystems
Our ecosystems are vital to Canadian economy and society. They provide essential services to human society, including provisionary services such as food, timber, and water; regulating services that affect climate change, the spread of disease, and water quality; cultural services that provide recreational and social benefits; and, supporting services such as photosynthesis that help to regenerate organisms in the system.
Projected changes in climate are expected to bring a range of challenges and benefits to Canada as our economic and social well-being is greatly influenced by the health and sustainability of these resources. Threats to ecosystem stability include changes in precipitation, growing seasons, temperature, and the influx of invasive alien species; all of which can be linked to climate change.
Roundtable 1 – Participants
Moderator
Gisèle Quenneville
Host-Producer, Panorama, TFO
Bill Borland
Chairman, Board of Directors, Canadian Water Network
Mel Cappe
President & CEO, Institute for Research on Public Policy (IRPP)
David Chernushenko
Vice-Chair, National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy
Linda Coady
Vice President, Sustainability, Vancouver Organizing Committee for the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games (VANOC)
Dr. Roger Gibbins
President & CEO, Canada West Foundation
Michael Harcourt
Honorary Chair, International Centre for Sustainable Cities; Co-Chair, International Panel of Advisors;
Honorary Co-Chair, Advisory Council on Sustainability, University of British Columbia
Toby A. Heaps
President, Corporate Knights Inc.
Hélène Lauzon
President, Quebec Business Council on the Environment
Avrim Lazar
President & CEO, Forest Products Association of Canada
Preston Manning, C.C.
Senior Fellow , Fraser Institute and President
CEO, Manning Centre for Building Democracy
Ken Ogilvie
Consultant and Senior Advisor, Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability practice of Deloitte & Touche LLP
Merrell-Ann Phare
Executive Director/Legal Counsel, Centre for Indigenous
Environmental Resources (CIER)
Dr. Rick Smith
Executive Director, Environmental Defence
Round Table 2 – Securing Canada’s Energy Economy
Energy-related emissions account for over 80% of Canadian GHG emissions; at the same time, energy-related industry accounts for 7 % of Canada’s GDP and national wealth. This sums up the challenge of securing Canada’s energy economy in the face of climate change. As the NRTEE has stated in its recent reports on climate change, transitioning to a low-emission future in a carbon constrained world will require important transformations and development within Canada’s energy economy.
Over the past decade, reference to the concept of energy security has increased. In Canada, the energy industry is a major contributor to GHGs and to economic growth and wealth. Transitioning to a low-emission future in a carbon constrained world will require important transformations and development within Canada’s energy economy. High energy prices, growing demand for energy, and restricted production are contributing to changes in how we consume and produce energy in Canada, along with our energy mix. Securing an affordable and sustainable energy supply for Canada in the face of climate change will require more sustainable production and consumption choices.
Roundtable 2 – Participants
Moderator
Bernard Lord
President & CEO
Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association
Elyse Allan
President & CEO, GE Canada
Angus Bruneau
Member
National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy
F. Michael Cleland
President and CEO, Canadian Gas Association
Andrew Coyne
National Editor, Maclean’s
Duncan Hawthorne
President and CEO, Bruce Power
Dr. David Keith
Director, ISEEE Energy and Environmental Systems Group, Canada Research Chair in Energy and the Environment
Andrew Lee
Chief Executive, United Kingdom Sustainable Development Commission
Sheila Leggett
Vice-Chair, National Energy Board
John A. Manzoni
President & CEO, Talisman Energy Inc.
Jeff Passmore
Executive Vice President, Public Affairs, Iogen Corporation
Dr. Marlo Raynolds
Executive Director, Pembina Institute
Peter Robinson
CEO, the David Suzuki Foundation
Vicky J. Sharpe
President & CEO
Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC)
Steven W. Williams
Chief Operating Officer, Suncor
Round Table 3 – Securing Canada’s Arctic Environment
Canada’s North and Arctic environment are already experiencing the effects of climate change. Melting sea ice, storm surges, and changes in species’ living patterns are all apparent. As climate change occurs in Canada’s North, new issues and questions are emerging about what this means to access to natural resources, protecting threatened ecosystems, sovereignty and security, and Indigenous peoples, northern communities and their way of life.
Biodiversity, ecosystems, and cultural traditions are threatened by melting ice and warmer temperatures derived from climate change. Dramatic warming over the past century has led to significant summer sea-ice loss and permafrost thaw in the Arctic. Sea ice is now more unstable where Inuit hunters previously knew it to be safe; rising sea levels and reduction in sea ice makes coastal communities more vulnerable to storm surges and erosion; and, plant, insect and animal species are changing and adapting.
Roundtable 3 – Participants
Moderator
Jodi White
President, Public Policy Forum
Patrick Borbey
Assistant Deputy Minister
Indian and Northern Affairs
Terry Breese
Deputy Chief of Mission, American Embassy in Ottawa
Anthony Cary
British High Commissioner, Canada
Ian Church
Senior Science Advisor, Executive Council Office,
Yukon Government; Chairman, Canadian International Polar Year National Committee
Elizabeth Dowdeswell
University of Toronto
Violet Ford
Inuit Circumpolar Council (ICC)
Fen Osler Hampson
Chancellor’s Professor and Director, The Norman Paterson School of International Affairs, Carleton University
Paul Heinbecker
Distinguished Fellow, International Relations
Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI)
Thomas Homer-Dixon
Chair, Centre for International Governance Innovation of Global Systems, Balsillie School of International Affairs, Waterloo; Professor, Centre for Environment and Business in the Faculty of Environment, University of Waterloo
Robert Huebert, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, University of Calgary
Robert Page
Chair
National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy
David Runnalls
President & CEO, International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD)
Mercedes Stephenson
National Media Commentator on Defence and Security Affairs
© 2013