Premiers conference in Vancouver to focus on climate change

Climate change is shaping up to be the top issue at the premiers conference in Vancouver on Monday, with environmental protesters promising to turn up the heat outside on the sidewalk as the leaders meet inside.

At the conference of the Council of the Federation, the provincial and territorial premiers will spend the next two days searching for common ground on climate change.

As the premiersarrive at the Pan Pacific hotel, each of them will have a different climate change plan tucked under his arm.

But rather than try to hammer out agreements on slowing or stopping climate change, the premiers will instead focus on finding ways to live with climate change.

On Monday morning, New Brunswick Premier Shawn Graham will chair a meeting to discuss climate change and internal trade. On Tuesday, British Columbia Premier Gordon Campbell will host a special forum on climate change adaptation.

The premiers have wrestled with climate change before as a group, but have never reached unanimous agreementon how fast, or how deep to make cuts to greenhouse gases and carbon emissions.

None have goals more disparate than B.C. and Alberta.The formerhas pledged to cut carbon emissions 80 per cent by 2050, while Alberta is offering just a 14 per cent reduction.

Meanwhile, environmental groups plan to greet the premiers with a protest Monday morning.

Chris Hatch with the group Environmental Defence says he wants Premier Campbell to call Alberta's Ed Stelmach to task for that province's greenhouse gas emissions.

"All of the emissions that British Columbia cuts will be wiped out by growth in the Alberta tarsands," Hatch told CBC News.

But Campbell is not willing to be critical of the premier next door, saying, "Premiers will decide for themselves whether that's the route they want to go or not."

Instead of arguing about targets no one can agree on, Campbell will lead the effort to focus on coping with theresults of climate change.

One example of theeffect that B.C. has felt is the plague of the mountain pine beetle, which is currently wiping out large areas of the Interior forest.

One cold winter might have killed off the pine beetle before it spread. But instead, the pine beetle flourished during a decade of mild winters and turned into an economically and environmentally devastating plague, whichhas since crossed the Rocky Mountains andis nowthreatening the forests of Alberta.

Even Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty said the bug that benefited from climate change has left premiers with a problem to solve.

"They're into Alberta, and they're coming to Ontario. They're coming to our forests. They're going to kill our forests. They're going to cause job losses," said McGuinty.

The Council of the Federation was created by the premiers in Charlottetown in December 2003 to boost theirinfluence on national policies.