For immediate release

NEWS RELEASE

Press Release for House Committee on Environment and Sustainable Development:
 Trip to Washington for Meetings with American Senators and European Parliamentarians
 on Climate Change and Transboundary Pollution

OTTAWA – January 24, 2002 – The House Standing Committee on Environment and Sustainable Development will be visiting Washington D.C. from January 28 to 30, 2002.  The main purpose of the trip is to hold tripartite meetings on the issue of climate change with European parliamentarians and members of the United States Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.  On the agenda for discussion are climate change, transboundary pollution and oil drilling in the Arctic.  The Committee will also have briefings with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on transboundary pollution as well as with a variety of national environmental non-governmental organisations.

The challenge of climate change can be met through concerted international action.  Unfortunately the international action on climate change, the Kyoto Protocol, has lost one of its major participants, the United States.  The meeting in Washington with members of the Senate Committee and the House of Representatives Science Committee aims at addressing an effective climate change strategy with meaningful bilateral, regional and international components.

Increasingly it is becoming evident that international efforts are required to tackle a complex issue such as climate change.  Meetings of parliamentarians can help serve to exchange ideas and formulate international action to solve common environmental problems and move toward a more sustainable future.

The year 2002 is a landmark year in the effort to integrate environmental and social concerns into the concept of development as it marks the tenth anniversary of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development.