The Star’s view:

Paris summit could be turning point,

Will the United Nations climate talks that have just opened in Paris succeed in bending Earth’s temperature curve in a healthier direction? Yes, if the world’s big polluters match the targets they have set out with the gritty resolve to follow through.

That makes the conference a potential turning point in the long push to halt and reverse the global warming that threatens us all.

After earlier efforts in Rio, Kyoto and Copenhagen, a shared sense of urgency appears to be building among the 170 countries that have agreed to table plans to curb greenhouse gas emissions in the coming years. That in itself is encouraging.

As Prime Minister Justin Trudeau pointed out in his brief, upbeat opening address to the UN Conference on Climate Change on Monday, “this mobilization is unprecedented” and it offers a “historic opportunity to build a sustainable economy.” To applause, he announced that “Canada is back . . . we’re here to help,” after a decade of playing the spoiler. His Liberal government aims to be a “purveyor of solutions that the world desperately needs,” he said. We’ll no doubt hear more in the throne speech this week. But the positive work Trudeau committed us to will stretch well into the future. That’s because even taken together, the pledges on record in Paris — including Canada’s — will fail to meet the target of holding the rise in Earth’s temperature to 2 C, from the pre-industrial level. The UN estimates we’re headed for a 2.7-degree rise.

If the conference is to be a genuine success, commitments by Canada and other countries to wean ourselves from fossil fuels must be seen as a starting-point, not an end-point. There should be a review mechanism to prod countries periodically to set their sights higher — for example at five-year intervals. And there’s got to be careful tracking of countries’ performance and public reporting, to name and shame backsliders.

Mobilizing the Canadian public to accept carbon pricing and other measures will also be part of the challenge, Trudeau acknowledged. “People want to do more but they want to know that what they’re doing fits in to the bigger picture,” he said. Shaping that big picture focus is part of Paris’s mandate. If the world is to be spared the ravages of melting ice sheets, rising seas, violent weather, floods, famine and drought, we will all have to pull together, effectively.

“Every single one of us can and should be much more conscious of the ways we can act to reduce our carbon footprint,” Trudeau said.

The UN conference is expected to produce a universal agreement covering the post-2020 period that will require countries to set carbon-reduction targets that, while not legally binding, will be considered moral obligations.

As Trudeau pointed out, Canada’s premiers have paved the way toward a “pan-Canadian framework” by taking the initiative in several areas: Quebec and Ontario are embracing cap and trade, British Columbia has a revenue-neutral carbon tax, Alberta has a carbon tax and an emissions cap, and provinces are phasing out coal-fired electricity and investing in carbon capture and storage.

Trudeau has committed to reducing our carbon emissions by 30 per cent from 2005 levels by 2030. That’s the same target set by the Conservatives, but the Liberals regard it as “a floor, not a ceiling.” Within 90 days of Paris he plans to host a meeting with the premiers to firm up the carbon-pricing policies and investments that will be required to make good on that pledge, or to better it.

Trudeau is also using Ottawa’s taxing and spending powers to good effect. In Malta he announced Canada will contribute $2.65 billion over five years to help developing countries reduce their reliance on fossil fuels, doubling our effort. And in Paris he reaffirmed a campaign pledge to invest $300 million in research and development on clean technology.

Canada can indeed be the “purveyor of solutions” that Trudeau envisages. But he and the premiers must aim high. We need an ambitious national carbon-cutting target, robust carbon pricing and sustained investments in green technologies and conservation. Our rhetoric and our targets must be matched with resolve.

Paris summit could be a turning point in the push to halt global warming