E-3 Emergency resolution on United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification
Submitted by: La Pointe-de-l’Île
WHEREAS Canada is the only country in the world to pull out of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification, despite the growing crisis of climate change and the human toll taken by drought in the world’s poorest regions;
WHEREAS this convention is the world’s only binding instrument addressing desertification and drought;WHEREAS Canada’s annual contribution is actually less than the $350,461 spent by Senator Pamela Wallin on travel sinceSeptember 2010;
WHEREAS more than half of all deaths in natural disasters worldwide are related to drought, which also has severe impacts in the Canadian prairies; and
WHEREAS this decision follows on the heels of other Conservative moves to ignore the impacts of climate change, including muzzling government scientists, pulling out of the Kyoto agreement, shutting down the National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy, and closing the world-leading Experimental Lakes Area;
BE IT RESOLVED THAT New Democrats condemn the Conservative decision to pull out of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification and call for its immediate reversal;
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED THAT New Democrats pledge to continue to work to address the crisis of climate change at home and abroad, including through participation in agreements and programs to address the impacts of desertification.
MP Paul Dewar spoke in support of this motion.
Motion passed.