Today, we are welcoming the world here to Montréal, here to Canada. Our country represents
many things around the world. Every day we work hard to be an example of openness and
diversity. We have athletes and artists who excel on the international stage; we have
workers and scientists who allow us to innovate and advance. But above all, when people around
the world think of Canada, they think of our landscapes and our abundance of nature.
Canada is the Atlantic and the St. Lawrence Valley.
Canada is the Rockies in the West with their magnificent snowcapped peaks, the Arctic in
the north, vast and full of unexpected life, the ancient forests of British Columbia and
the maple trees of Quebec, between which you find the living skies of the Prairies. Nature
is a part of who we are, and we're here today at COP15 to make sure it remains part of who
we will be for generations to come.
I don't have to tell any of you here this afternoon that nature is under threat; in fact,
it's under attack. I've been speaking for just a few moments so far, but in these
couple of moments, we've lost globally as much as 136 soccer fields worth of trees;
and that's just one example. The job we're doing as a world just isn't good enough.
It's as simple as that.
Canada stepped up, on just a few months’ notice, to have this nature COP held here
in Montreal so that together we find solutions. The clock is ticking, and we knew this conference
couldn't wait until some other time.
We are facing a biodiversity crisis. This is a crisis that is just as real and as dangerous
as the climate crisis. It is a major issue that cannot be relegated to the sidelines,
because we are all connected to nature. Our cities need clean water and our farms need bees.
Marshes protect our communities against flooding, and tens of trillions of dollars
of the global economy depend on nature. We must act, and we must act now.
For our part, Canada is making record progress on its commitment to protect 25% of our land
and 25% of our waterways by 2025, and 30% by 2030. And 30% was not chosen at random.
According to leading scientists, this is the critical threshold to avoid the risk of extinction
and to ensure our economic and food security, among other things.
And 30% is perfectly feasible. In Canada, we have increased the amount of protected
marine and coastal areas from less than 1% in 2015 to more than 14% today.
At the same time,
we have also protected several hundred thousand square kilometres of land, which,
to give you an idea, is equivalent to the size of Italy. And when big countries like
Canada take action, it really makes a difference.
As we make historic progress on our commitment to protect 30% of our land and waters by 2030
in Canada, we're also protecting iconic species, from the Western bumble bee to orcas, and
we're doing all this work in partnership with Indigenous peoples. You see, in some ways,
Canada is a young country at only 155, but of course we recognize and embrace that Indigenous
peoples have lived on and cared for these lands since time immemorial. All of our work
on protecting nature must be reflective of Indigenous ways of knowing and being, and
in true partnership in order to advance our shared journey of reconciliation.
(Applause)
Progress, protection and partnership, that's what we're focused on delivering. And tomorrow
I'll be talking about some of what's next for Canada, but we're gathered today because
this isn't work we or any one country can do alone.
The world's five biggest countries, Russia, Canada and China – the two countries involved
in hosting this meeting – the U.S. and Brazil, represent over 50% of the world's forests.
Canada has the world's longest coastline, Russia has the world's largest boreal forest,
and the world's largest wetland, the Pantanal, is primarily in Brazil. That's a big responsibility
for big countries, and progress is being made, no doubt, but of the world's five biggest
countries, none of us is yet at 30% of both our land and waters protected.
Now, we don't have to get all the way there by tomorrow, but by 2030, we all really do.
By 2030 we must halt and reverse biodiversity loss.
(Applause)
And a key part of doing that is protecting 30% of the world's land and waters.
Every leader must be telling their negotiators to bring this ambition to the table as we reach
a final framework here over the next two weeks.
For our part…
(Applause)
For our part, today I can share that in our role as host location, Canada is committing
another $350 million in international biodiversity finance.
(Applause)
This is $350 million in new money that will be invested in international funding for biodiversity,
in addition to the more than $1 billion that we have already pledged to combat the effects
of climate change on biodiversity loss. Minister Guilbeault will tell you more about this, but the point
is that we continue to act globally.
My friends, we will all be working together during the summit, and we must achieve results.
Our citizens are counting on us. Citizens like Jean-Marc, who wrote to me through Nature
Canada. Jean-Marc lives a few hours from here in Gatineau. He told me that he is counting
on us to be leaders in biodiversity, for example, to protect birds, because he cares about that.
I also got a letter from a young woman, Maria, on Canada's West Coast, who said that we need
to act right now to protect our wilderness and ecosystems. Jean-Marc and Maria are right.
Canada is welcoming you here because we expect action, we're challenging ourselves
and we're challenging you.
Now, there are lots of disagreements between governments, but if we can't agree as a world
on something as fundamental as protecting nature, well, nothing else matters.
(Applause)
Until we agree that we should stop species from going extinct, until we agree that our
water should be clean and our air should be clean, until we agree that it matters that
forests, grasslands, jungles endure, we cannot guarantee a future for our kids.
This is not the time to ask whether we should act, or whether we should be ambitious; this
is the time to say how we are going to do it. We have a beautiful, extraordinary planet,
and this is the time to focus on what we are going to do together to ensure its future.
Thank you very much, everyone.