Queen Elizabeth will head a list of VIP's at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Port of Spain, starting next Friday. The Queen, who is the head of the Commonwealth, will formally open the talks.Three other special guests, who are not connected with the Commonwealth, are also attending: UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen and french President Nicholas Sarkozy.
All three are going to Port of Spain to meet Commonwealth leaders to get their commitment for the UN Climate change conference taking place in Copenhagen, next month.
The UN is leading the push for a new global initiative to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
(TOP: UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon- Below: Danish PM Lars Lokke Rasmussen
(Above: French President Nicholas Sarkozy: Below: Canadian PM Stephen Harper)
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper will lead his country's delegation to CHOGM 2009. Canada is not a big fan of climate change.Harper's environment minister, Jim Prentice, said this week it may be a few years before Canada tables regulations to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
Prentice said the world has to first negotiate a new climate change treaty and Canada and the United States must finish their continental agreement on the same issue.
Prentice is taking part in the last round of climate change talks before the formal United Nations conference begins next month.
He also dampened any hope an international treaty will be reached in December.
"I think even a few months ago there had been an expectation on the part of the outside world that we would arrive at a full international treaty in December in Copenhagen. That clearly is not going to happen," he told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in a telephone interview from Denmark.
He said Canada is hoping a broad political agreement can be reached next month that will maintain the momentum towards a full international treaty. But he cautioned it may take most of 2010 to reach that legal accord.
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