B.C. ready to meet Paris climate change targets, says Claire Martin

Canadian delegates in Paris say B.C. is in a good position to help the country reach any greenhouse gas targets set at the COP21 climate change talks, but the hard work of setting those targets still remains to be completed.

The conference will go on for at least one more day past the deadline, but expectations remain high that a deal will be reached after more than two weeks of negotiations, according to Claire Martin, the Green Party environment critic.

If Canada signs on the dotted line to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees in 10 years, it will mean reducing its greenhouse gas emission by about four per cent every year, said Martin, who is in Paris as part of the Canadian delegation.

B.C.'s premier and environment minister have already said the province is ahead of the game when it comes to reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

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Martin agrees, saying she believes B.C. will pull its weight in the fight against climate change.

"I have a huge faith in B.C. ... because we already have a carbon tax. We pay it at the pump," she said. "It is doable. It's steep, but it's doable."

Little sleep for delegates

But before the work at home can begin, the delegates from about 195 countries have to come to an agreement.

Canada's team has gotten little sleep the past two weeks, and it's crunch time now if they want reach an agreement.

"It's literally a case of lock these people — ergo us — in a room, and force them to make a  decision. The pressure is immense," Martin told CBC Radio Friday morning from Paris.

"We've been up three days now, with two all-nighters in between," said Martin, who was the CBC's top meteorologist before she stepped down to run in the federal election for the Green Party.

Martin says she is proud of the team's work ethic, especially that of Canada's Environment Minister Catherine McKenna.

"She's a new minister, it's a new government. She's not been in these kind of negotiations before. She's co-facilitating, she's putting in the hours with us."

A new draft of the agreement will be handed out Saturday morning, but the delegates are committed to staying as long as it take to hammer out a final agreement, she said.

Martin told CBC last week that delegates had been told to book their flights home for at least two or three days after the conference deadline.

To listen to the full audio, click the link labelled: Climate change talks in Paris extended.