What we do, and what we don't do, has a very real effect on the people of the small island states. Many of you, I am sure, remember when the Association of Small Island States delegation in Berlin gave an impassioned plea for international action. Soon after Berlin, I invited the delegation leader, who is also Western Samoa's Ambassador to the United Nations, Canada, and the United States to speak to Canadian Parliamentarians. Ambassador Neroni Slade told us that climate change has put the lives and livelihoods of his people on the line. For Canada, I am determined we do what we can to act in a preventative way.
Green technologies are preventative.
Prevention is the only sound course of action. Renewable energy is the energy of the future. We want to show that energy efficiency technologies, new transportation technologies, and technological expertise in reducing and eliminating harmful emissions are good for the environment and good for the economy. In Berlin, when the Parties to the Climate Change Convention set up a pilot program for technology sharing, this was the kind of reaching out they envisioned. But let's face it, very few of us are doing enough of what it takes to take control of this problem.