Post-it notes, chats with experts, part of public climate change forum

About 500 people attended public forum in Edmonton Wednesday to give input on Alberta's new climate change strategy.

The forum gave the public a chance to interact with members of the panel, talk to experts from the provincial government, and respond to questions on white boards around the room by writing answers on post-it notes. 

Andrew Leach, the University of Alberta energy economist who chairs the government's climate change panel, said this format gives people more opportunity to be heard.

• Alberta climate-change panel to consult before taking action
• Hundreds turn up for Alberta's 1st climate change forum

"Tonight there are enough panel members and government officials in the room," Leach said. "Everyone is going to get to talk to someone and get their position on the record."

For example, when asked "what will you do to help take action on climate change" people offered answers like "put solar panels on my roof," "take transit", and "change my career focus from oil and gas to alternative energy."

Paul Belanger drove in to Edmonton from his home in rural Alberta to give his input.

"I'm very interested in the green job economy and a real change, a real transition for Alberta," he said.

Anna Bubel wrote on a post-it note that she hoped her grandchildren wouldn't curse her and her generation at her funeral.

"We have to do something to protect their future," she said. "We can't live in denial. We can't simply pretend that because the status quo serves us that it's going to serve our grandchildren because it won't."

Leach and the four other members of the panel will make recommendations this fall on how Alberta should address climate change. The public forums are one part of the consultation. The panel is also talking to industry, municipalities, academics, First Nations and Métis communities. 

The province wants a strategy to take to the United Nations Climate Change conference in Paris at the end of November.

The first session in Calgary Tuesday attracted 420 people. Leach was pleasantly surprised by the response as it was double what the panel was expecting. 

"Albertans are engaged in this. It's something that's important and it's amplified by the current economic conditions," he said.

"They either want to do something, or they're nervous about what might happen. They want to get a sense who the panel members are because the government has entrusted us with giving them advice."