Several weeks have passed now since the chaotic final moments of the Copenhagen Summit. Amidst the confusion, two outcomes stand out:

• the climate movement was incredibly successful in engaging millions of people for the Copenhagen Summit, and
  
• the Copenhagen Summit failed to deliver on even its most modest of promises.Instead of rising to meet the challenge, the bar was continuously lowered to protect the most polluting industries in a handful of countries.

In Canada we set out to make climate leadership a major issue for Canadians, and to make sure that our government knows it. We’ve succeeded on both counts. Thousands of Canadians have taken civic actions for the first time; millions of Canadians have been engaged by the issue and watched in horror as their minority government and abdicated its responsibilities to protect its people.

The question is, what next?

If we are going to peak global emissions within the decade we need to continue mobilizing for collective action on climate change. If we are going to make it possible to reduce global warming pollution to near-zero by 2050 then we need to recreate and rebuild our economies and infrastructure from the ground up.

If you live in the Capital Region, please join us for Post Copenhagen: Where do we go now? - a panel discussion with delegates on the agony and ecstasy of COP15. Featuring, among others, Sierra's very own Jamie Biggar, Chair of the Board.

This work is particularly important in BC. While BC took an early leadership position in Canada there are now two major questions that need to be answered in the right way.

First, will BC implement climate action policies that are both effective and fair? Second, will BC continue to scale up the development of the fossil fuel industry, particularly in the north-east of the province, and thus counteract its other climate policies?

Those are the kinds of questions that we need to work on together, knowing that there are millions of others like us around the world.