OTTAWA — Nov 25 2008 - Green party Leader Elizabeth May says the threat of climate change makes the global economic meltdown look like a "Sunday school picnic."May plans to attend United Nations meetings next week in Poland which will plan for next year's major climate-change conference in Copenhagen.
The Copenhagen summit is supposed to produce a successor to the Kyoto Protocol, an international agreement on reducing greenhouse gases which expires in 2012.
May says a new pact to cover the post-Kyoto period is needed quickly because the world will be "past the point of no return" if greenhouse gas levels keep rising beyond 2015.
The talks in Poland follow last year's climate-change discussions in Bali, Indonesia, and are meant to prepare countries for Copenhagen.
May says even if Canadian negotiators don't say or do anything in Poland, that would still be better than Bali, where critics accused Canada of obstructing talks. More >>>
