Jason Unrau
Northern News Services
Friday, April 27, 2007

YELLOWKNIFE - Former American vice-president and current darling of the environmental movement, Al Gore, has a personal invitation to visit the territories from Industry Minister Brendan Bell.

Bell made the offer during a brief meeting Monday with Gore following a Calgary presentation of the vice-president's Oscar-winning documentary film on climate change.

"I thanked him on behalf of northerners for bringing this issue to the," said Bell. "And I invited him to come north and hear about (the impacts of climate change) firsthand."

Bell called the lack of action on the Kyoto Protocol - a pact to scale back greenhouse gas emissions - an "embarrassing legacy."

When asked how the country could meet its Kyoto obligations without hurting the resource development sector, in particular the territories' huge natural gas potential, Bell said the interests could be intertwined.

"Using natural gas to meet our needs is the bridge to the renewable energy future," he said adding the Mackenzie Gas Project is able to play a role.

"We're going towards renewable resources and in the interim let's cut down on coal and oil."

One way to get Canada back to its 1990 greenhouse gas emissions level (our primary Kyoto commitment is to go six per cent below that target of 599 million tonnes) is expanding use of renewable energy. While hydro-electricity has been around for decades, wind generation and solar power are just starting to gain acceptance as possibilities for the Northwest Territories.

Bell said his department is looking at a number of renewable energy options, including wind energy and geothermal heat.

"Can these be done efficiently and at a reasonable cost, we'll have to wait and see," Bell said. "Really, I'm optimistic and think these are great ideas."

As for a visit from Gore, Bell said he was going to follow up his offer with a formal invitation.