Climate change activist has advice for Justin Trudeau

An Australian climate change activist is urging Justin Trudeau to act quickly to catch up on a what he calls adecade of lost opportunity.

"We need to have steep cuts andreally quickly," said TimFlannery, chief councillor of the Australian Climate Council and author of 'Atmosphere of Hope'.

Flannery says world pollution is at its worst ina decade.

"Anyone dealing with this issue has to be in recognition that wecome from a lost decade of opportunity," he said, "they now commit us to one and half degrees of warming, even if we stop polluting right now."

Trudeau has highlighted theupcoming UN climate change summit inParis as a priority.He's said in the past that a Liberalgovernment would work with the provinces in order to hammer out a climate change policywithin 90 days of the summit.

Flannery believes that's a good starting point.

"You gotto listen to the provinces, there is little point putting up a tag and at the end finding out thatyou don't have an agreement across all the jurisdiction in Canada," said Flannery.

Trudeau has said thatnational emissions targets would be set after consultation with the provinces.

Investing in technology

Flannery says in addition to reducing emissions and adapting, Canada needs to focus on technologies that will get CO2 emissions out of the atmosphere.

"I think we need to look more broadly and in terms of the future and say what are the industries that are really thriving in the next decade or two," said Flannery.

"We have to adapt and we have to get gas out of the air," he said.

He says companies like Carbon Engineering in B.C. are already doing a good job of removing carbon emissions from the atmosphere.

"[They are] getting CO2 out of the air and turning it into something useful and Ithink that is the future and for a resource economy that is a resource," he said.

The Liberals have promised to invest $200 million each year to create strategies to support innovation and clean technologies in the forestry, energy and agricultural sectors, and invest an additional $100 million to support clean technology companies.

Flannery was in Vancouver to accept the Jack P. Blaney Award for DialoguefromSimon Fraser University.

To hear the full interview listen to the audio labelled Climate change activist has advice for PM Justin Trudeauwiththe CBC's Rick Cluff onThe Early Edition.