Baird's Speech

Elizabeth May

No doubt, anyone who wants to read Baird’s speech can find it on his website.

The words are jarring.  No one yet has given such an upbeat bullish speech.  "We are here to build on momentum.  The Copenhagen Accord was a breakthrough"  No one has spoken of the Copenhagen Accord as a breakthrough.  Didn't anyone brief him about how the vast majority of countries in this room feel about Copenhagen? And then he announced our target was based on the US target. And vehicle standards aligned with the US.  He claims we are striking out on our own to regulate coal.  Who is he kidding? The imaginary coal regulations won us the fossil of the day earlier this week.

He ends calling for the Copenhagen accord to be the basis of a next phase agreement.

Clearly this speech was designed for an audience back home. Really off base in terms of negotiation.