Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I could not have said it better. My colleague expressed exactly what I was thinking over here.
The premise of the motion is fine. Accountability and transparency are good, but when Mr. Mazier went on a tirade about the legitimacy of flying to a meeting, when we all flew here, I'm pretty sure, except for maybe Madame Chatel.... Ms. Taylor Roy drove. I drive sometimes too, and I'm lucky. Gérard Deltell has an electric vehicle, I might add, because he's an environmentalist in his own right. We're not counting carbon credits over here, but my point is that in order to have an impact....
Canada is responsible for 1.5% of global emissions. That's something that the Conservatives love to remind folks, “We're just a small player in the emissions world.” That might be true. I would also add that we're 0.5% of the global population, so it means that, on average, each of us sitting here has triple the carbon footprint of an average global citizen. That's significant.
Why do we show up to these meetings? It's leadership—because we can have an impact if we're in the room. Yesterday, instead of being here, as the member so eloquently put it, the minister announced that Canada was the first-ever country to commit to reducing our oil and gas emissions, with respect to methane, by 75%. That's a global first. Canada stood up. We took credit. We were given a lot of credit, and a lot of organizations out there in the environmental non-governmental organization space are saying Canada's on the right path.
Other countries are going to follow suit. If the United States does the same thing, as it has indicated it might, that's massive. Do you know why? It's because the United States is responsible for 30% or 40% of global emissions and a lot of methane. Methane's 80 times worse than CO2 when it's put into our environment. Thankfully, it doesn't last as long, but it's really bad for global warming. It has a negative impact on our environment.
Why do we show up to important meetings? We do it to be leaders. We already know that the Conservatives do not want to lead on climate change, despite having run their last election on a promise to price carbon. After that election, they lost, and members of their caucus flew on airplanes over to Europe to meet with the Danube Institute—which is a far-right group, a bunch of climate deniers—to eat chateaubriand and oysters and porterhouse steaks paid for by climate change deniers in the Danube Institute, in a far-right context.
Mr. Chair, we all have a carbon footprint and we all have an obligation to lower it. By showing up, Canada was the first country in the world to set this ambitious target to lower our methane oil and gas sector emissions below 2012 levels by 75% by 2030. That is significant progress.
I'm willing to stake a chateaubriand dinner, if you like—maybe on Sparks Street—on the fact that he's not done yet. He's over there to continue to lead, and I for one am really proud that we have an environmental activist as an environment minister. When I was a kid, I grew up watching David Suzuki on TV. I grew up reading Owl Magazine and I grew up wanting to be an environmental champion.
On this side of the House, we can confidently say that we are. The Bloc can say that, so can the NDP and so can our Green members. The Conservatives cannot.