The ongoing debate on solutions

30 Climate COPs Later: Stories from Canadian Participants
Thomas Burelli, Alexandre Lillo, Lauren Touchant, Lynda Hubert Ta, and Elie Klee (eds.)

Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press, 2025
$24.95  /  9780776645575

Reviewed by DC Reid

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Climate change is a subject that is gaining more attention as weather, temperature, rain, and fire effects become more common in the world. Yet, most people don’t know there is a major worldwide movement to look into it and find solutions.

30 Climate COPs Later is the best book on this subject. If follows the international meetings over the last 30 years which aim to change climate for the better. The first Climate COP was in Berlin, Germany in 1995. Even then it was a major event – in its first year – with 117 member states, comprising 757 participants. This has grown exponentially, with 14,074 participants in 2024 in Baku, Azerbaijan. The number of citizens interested in the subject and attending as spectators looks to be up to 500,000 this year – the meetings are held in November, every year. That’s how important the COPs are.

The first major document was The Kyoto Protocol at COP 3, released in 1997. The second major document was the Paris Agreement at COP 21 in 2015. The growth in number of subjects and financing has grown steadily to the point where in 2016 the major, northern states gave $100 billion to the developing nations, with the aim, by 2035, of climate funding growing to $1.3 trillion, of which the aim is to provide $300 billion to developing nations annually.

30 Climate COPs Later is written by Canadian participants over the decades, including, for example, Elizabeth May as one participant and writer. In 2019, carbon dioxide, one greenhouse gas, rose to a level that hasn’t been seen for two million years. Yes, millions. That is how bad the world is. One major aim is to keep the world’s temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius by 2100. The alarming figure is that if we keep on growing the way we are, the actual temperature rise by 2100 has been calculated at 3.1 degrees, hence why action is needed now and for it to be consistent through the years.

Canada has played a leading role in these meetings, and this book follows Canada’s progress over those years. COP 11 took place in Montreal in 2005. The book covers the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Canadian federal, provincial, territorial and municipal governments, Indigenous peoples, Environmental Non-government Organizations (NGOs), youth, trade workers and unions, natural resource and finance sectors and technical community scientists.

Officials serve as negotiators in the various working groups or as policy analysts, legal advisors, or coordinators. Along with indigenous representations. You may remember Donald Trump pulled the US out of involvement twice, the most recent occurrence being in January 2025 on the day of his inauguration.

Gradually, we’ve made a trend away from fossil fuels. The major emitters over the years have been the big five: Canada, US, UK, Australia, and Norway. 97% of world scientists have said humanity is creating its own catastrophe. The Kyoto Protocol set binding world GHG emissions but did not oblige developed nations to reduce their emissions.

But not everyone was on board. Stephen Harper, for example, while prime minister, sent a note in 2002 about the Kyoto accord saying, “Kyoto is essentially a socialist scheme to suck money out of wealth producing nations.” He also reiterated President George Bush’s negative thoughts on the subject. However, in 2015, the Paris Agreement was signed by all participants, some 196 countries.

In the end, the Paris Agreement had the US and China see eye to eye. It also brought in line the world’s biggest polluters, along with India and oil nations, Venezuela and Saudi Arabia, which were known to be against any agreement against oil-producing nations. The overall sentiment was that oil and gas were the substances of global warming and would always be so, unless the companies/countries were stopped from producing the products.

At COP 28, the partners agreed to move away from fossil fuels. The downside is that Trump removed the United States from the recommendations and severely hamstrung the environmental areas of the US government. This was not good, but everyone else continued, though the US will have a catastrophic effect on the planet, if this course of action is not changed. Fortunately, we only have three years left of Trump, and the COP process keeps chugging along.

By COP 30 in Brazil, 2025, the meetings grew to five main areas: mitigation, adaptation, finance, technology, and capacity building. COPs have several purposes: a membership meeting, a negotiating forum, a raising of awareness purpose, a climate jamboree, and a mobilizing opportunity. Examples include a solar alliance at COP 21, progress on zero emission cars and vans at COP 26 in Glasgow, and efforts to cut methane emissions at COP 28 in Dubai. The list goes on, including publication of measures to make sure nations put their money where their mouths are.

That didn’t stop oil lobbyists from taking part to keep oil on the table, even though that was the problem. Following COP 25 their influence was overwhelming, so by COP 29 in Azerbaijan, environmental activists called for their ban as they were all for keeping oil on the table in great force. By COP 27 in 2022, the nations had approved the funding for poor, climate-harassed nations to the $100 billion level as stated above. But there were 636 fossil fuel lobbyists present, they were that influential. At the same time there were 300 or so Indigenous representatives at COP 28. The influence of oil backers was at such a high level in COP 28 that the president of an oil producing nation declared oil, “a gift from God.”

Elizabeth May said that COPs are important gatherings because they keep climate change on the map. She entered the forum in 1992 as the executive director of the Sierra Club of Canada and attended many COPs. One of her functions was to keep an eye on politicians sent to COPs and then report to environmental activists what she learned. She invited Bill Clinton, who she had known since she was 17, to a COP. At first the Clinton said no, but then he changed his mind, and she had enough influence in the COP world that a president would pay attention to her. Catherine McKenna, serving for Justin Trudeau, wanted to get rid of Michael Martin as he was weak on climate change measures. When she told Trudeau et al, that they had Harper’s “problematic army of marching Zombies, they basically told me they would not interfere with the civil service.” This was just one negative political problem to be overcome. In Canada, we were high with oil and fuel, and this had a negative push on the process. “We only talk of net zero by 2050, while continuously not achieving our commitments.”

The problem continues to this day. Prime Minister Carney, for example, signed a MOU with Alberta to build a Trans Mountain pipeline to the coast of BC, something that was not welcomed by the province or First Nations. Oh, and earlier in his career he had been on the environmentalist’s side.

But the COPs go on. Compromise is at the heart of any final deal, including with COPs. One of the biggest blocs is the Group of 77 and China which has grown to also include 130 developing nations. In 2017 Canada and the UK joined together to produce the Powering Past Coal Alliance to promote the phase out of coal burning for energy. Now there are 180 members of this committee.

At COP 28 in Dubai, Canada joined nearly 200 nations calling for a tripling of renewable energy, doubling of energy efficiency, transitioning away from fossil fuels, among other measures. In Canada, Indigenous peoples and local governments lead together, with thoughts from the land, youth, and local wisdom. These sectors led to a Queering Climate committee.

These bodies, the Club of Rome and other international members, have laid out a blueprint to shift from talk to action. They call for more work, with smaller groups, to happen throughout the year, to get things done, not simply at the November COP.

In Canada, in particular, there has been great progress made to include Indigenous, Metis, and Inuit and their cross-Canada understanding of the land and their own philosophical awareness.

This book is so good with the treatment of the various subjects and actors included that I have now read it twice. It is that good. You need to buy this book and read it. I will be reading it for the third time in the coming months.

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DC Reid has been a finalist or won 26 awards as an author, most recently the Lifetime Achievement Award from the League of Canadian Poets. He is a steadfast advocate for the Canadian literary community, having served as the president for the Federation of BC Writers, Victoria Book Prize Society, and League of Canadian Poets. His most recent sport fishing book, A Man and His River: a 25-year love affair with a wild island waterway, won the 2023 Professional Outdoor Media Association of Canada gold medal for books. His next book of poems Canada: a Country of Poets and Human Writes has won three awards so far and is not yet published. [Editor’s Note: DC Reid has reviewed books by Dick Beamish & Jeff Marliave, Alan Haig-Brown, Lorne Fitch, and George Bumann for The British Columbia Review.

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The British Columbia Review

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Formerly The Ormsby Review, The British Columbia Review is an on-line book review and journal service for BC writers and readers. The Advisory Board now consists of Jean Barman, Wade Davis, Robin Fisher, Barry Gough, Hugh Johnston, Kathy Mezei, Patricia Roy, and Graeme Wynn. Provincial Government Patron (since September 2018): Creative BC. Honorary Patron: Yosef Wosk. Scholarly Patron: SFU Graduate Liberal Studies. The British Columbia Review was founded in 2016 by Richard Mackie and Alan Twigg.

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