Climate change conference takes the pulse of Canadians

At the United Nations summit in Copenhagen this December, delegates will try to hammer out a new international agreement on climate change.

In advance of that, people from more than 40 countries, including Canada, met over the weekend in a global consultation. The results of the citizens' deliberations will be presented directly to Copenhagen delegates.

All countries held conferences on the same day — Sept. 26 — and voted on the same questions as part of the World Wide Views on Global Warming project.

The Canadian forum took place at the University of Calgary and involved more than 100 representatives from across the country. Read the CBC story.

We asked two of the participants for their thoughts from the summit. Here's what they said:

Daniel Gillis

Who I am:  I'm from a small town (but not THAT small) in Cape Breton. I have just started my first year in a B.A. at Dalhousie University in Halifax. I plan to major in sustainability.

I had always planned on pursuing music and the guitar, but in the past year or two my morals have forced me to turn in another direction: an environmental one.

For me, this conference was not about how to stop global warming, but how to adapt and learn to live without burning all of our natural resources and polluting our water, earth and air.

I have always been an optimist, and I think this is an amazing opportunity to help change the world.

Video: Daniel's take on the conference:

Geoff Keyser

Who I am: I'm a 27-year-old engineer residing in Calgary. I studied engineering in Kingston, Ont., and prior to that lived in London (UK) and Houston. But I have always considered Calgary home.

Most of my free time is spent outdoors doing some sort of activity such as skiing, cycling, kite surfing or whitewater kayaking depending on the season.

I have not been active in the past on climate change issues, preferring to be involved in more local conservation efforts.

I have had zero involvement with any sort of climate change organization in the past, as I have a fairly cautious opinion from what I have read in the mainstream media.

My take on the conference:

I believe the World Wide Views climate conference in Calgary was a success. Polling across Canada gets a certain result, but never incorporates the sort of dialogue that results from average Canadians discussing an issue and formulating a proposal that everyone can agree on.

In many cases, lots of people have an opinion they are willing to adapt and if these sorts of proposals are shared, the entire debate should have more traction with the general public.

The event was marked by several emotional and informative presenters who described what climate change meant to them and how it affected their community in terms of social, economic, environmental and spiritual impacts.

In my mind, the most important recommendation put forward involved how the different emission targets affected different types of countries, based on their economic capacity.

The major developed countries such as the U.S. and Canada need to reduce emissions first and foremost. Beyond that, there are the emerging economic powers such as China and India that do not have the per-capita emission levels we do, but represent the future growth of greenhouse gas emissions.

The recommendation to also promote emission targets for these countries was emphasized because if there is not a global consensus on the new "rules," no progress will be achieved.

Video: