Sierra Club of Canada Media Release

The Sierra Club of Canada will present The Honourable Herb Gray, MP, PC, Deputy Minister of Canada, with the John Fraser Award for Environmental Achievement. This annual award recognizes the contribution to environmental conservation by an elected official. Mr. Gray is being honoured for his efforts to negotiate an agreement on the rules for the Kyoto Protocol last July in Bonn, Germany. The award will be presented at a dinner Thursday, November 8, at the National Press Club.

Mr. Gray stepped in at the last moment to replace Environment Minister David Anderson, who injured his hip on the eve of the continuation of the Sixth Conference of the Parties (COP6 b) of the United Nations Frame Work Convention on Climate Change. Mr. Anderson had defined Canada’s position in the weeks and months heading into the Bonn round and worked with Umbrella Group partners to prepare for the session.

The negotiations had broken down six months earlier in the Hague, when Canada, the US and its Umbrella Group partners failed to reach a compromise with the European Union over the use of sinks and other mechanisms to meet greenhouse gas reductions set out in the Kyoto Protocol. The situation deteriorated further when newly elected President George W. Bush announced in spring 2001 that the United States would not ratify the Kyoto Protocol.

In the lead up to the reopening of negotiations in Bonn, many observers feared Canada would use the US withdrawal as an excuse to back away from its commitments. During the first week of the technical negotiations there was great concern no deal would be possible and 12 years of international negotiations would fail. Environmentalists awarded Canada the "Fossil of the Day" Award (given to countries taking positions considered detrimental to protecting the climate). After Mr. Gray arrived, Canada received no more fossil awards. This was in stark contrast to the Hague round where Canada received one daily.

Having been part of many years of cabinet discussions on climate change and the Kyoto Protocol, and drawing on a lifelong concern for global air pollution in his role as MP for Windsor West, Mr. Gray went to Bonn at the last minute for what has been described as the most complicated set of international negotiations in history. The United Nations Frame Work Convention on Climate Change involves more than 160 countries covering environmental, economic and political issues. On his arrival Mr. Gray restated to media Canada’s commitment to negotiating an agreement. He then went to work behind the scenes to move the negotiations forward. Of fundamental importance was Canada’s work under his guidance to keep Japan in the agreement.

As a result of the work of Mr. Gray and his negotiating team, Canada is now part of an international agreement of unprecedented importance — an agreement that will lead to significant reductions in green house gas emissions and potentially avert an environmental catastrophe. For this reason the Sierra Club of Canada is awarding the John Fraser Award for Environmental Achievement to the Honourable Herb Gray, MP, PC, Deputy Prime Minister of Canada.

The Sierra Club of Canada chose to honour, on an annual basis, a person in public life who has contributed significantly to environmental protection and restoration .In choosing to name the award the “John Fraser Award for Environmental Achievement,” the Sierra Club of Canada recognizes the remarkable conservation achievements of one of Canada’s leading environmentalists.

John Fraser was drawn to public life by his concern for the environment in the 1960s. As Environment Minister in 1980, Fraser put acid rain on the political agenda and advanced the issue from the Opposition benches in the following years. As Speaker of the House, he worked tirelessly in nonpartisan efforts to protect the magnificent wilderness of the Queen Charlotte Islands in his native British Columbia, now established as Gwaii Hanaas National Park. Speaker Fraser also changed practices and policies on Parliament Hill, through the Greening of the Hill, initiative, implementing recycling, energy efficiency, no pesticides, and anti-idling rules for ministerial limousines. As Canada’s Ambassador for Environment and Sustainable Development, Ambassador Fraser ensured the full engagement of civil society in Canada’s delegations an represented this country in innumerable global negotiations for a working for planetary survival. Currently, Ambassador Fraser heads the Pacific Fisheries Resource Conservation Council.

As Speaker, Ambassador Fraser once remarked that “We are all part of a vast conspiracy to save the planet.” Through this award, SCC hopes to recognize those fellow-conspirators who, across party lines and for the advancement of the common good in the global commons, deliver concrete achievements in environmental protection.”