'It requires being brave': World leaders must put in the work on climate change, former Environment minister says

Now that the United Nations' COP26 global climate conference has wrapped up, it's time for world leaders to go home and put in the work necessary to fulfill their obligations to the Paris Agreement, according to former Environment Minister Catherine McKenna.

Although a broad consensus was not reached on how nations were going to limit a rise in global temperatures to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, per the treaty signed in 2015, McKenna believes the summit may have helped leaders realize they need to do their part in battling the climate crisis.

"Countries need to do the work. That's the point of the Paris Agreement," she told CTV News Channel on Saturday. "Countries have to go home and they have to have regulations in place. They have to ideally have a price on pollution and they have to make the investments."

McKenna offered praise to the Canadian government's commitment to cap its oil and gas emissions, which she said accounts for more than 20 per cent of the country's total emissions.

"We could plant as many trees as we want. We could retrofit every building and it wouldn't matter," McKenna said. "Oil and gas need to be part of the solution."