Climate change, clean energy security, and the World Trade Organization will be the main topics up for discussion when leaders gather for the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Australia in early September.
At a pre-APEC briefing with media on Wednesday, government officials outlined the agenda for the summit that is to take place in Sydney on Sept. 8 and 9.
The summit provides Canada with an opportunity to build relationships with important regional players, said a senior government official, and to "support the APEC agenda of facilitating commerce, security and better governance" in the Asia Pacific region.
Before APEC starts, leaders will attend a smaller business summit, which will include business representatives from outside the Asia Pacific region with a broad agenda.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper has been invited to deliver a keynote address in the session that will look at climate change and energy.
The APEC summit itself will also include dialogue sessions with the APEC Business Advisory Council, a group within APEC devoted to developing trade in the region.
Canada will be looking to team up with countries, especially those that are not part of other climate-change pacts, like Kyoto.
A government spokesperson said Canada would take a leading role to advance "our shared interest in a post 2012 climate-change framework."
"It's a really important opportunity for us to engage a whole range of players in the Asia Pacific region, including some large emitters. We'll have at the table the U.S., Russia and China, as well as a number of less important players," said the official.
She said that without the participation of the big emitters "we're just not going to have the same impact."
In addition, to be consistent with Canada's climate change plan, the government believes that the global approach to climate change "needs to be inclusive, it needs to be fair, and it needs to be flexible."
Canada continues to have a "strong interest" in the Asia-Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate (called the AP 6) and is hoping for "a signal" from the existing members on the possibility of joining the group.
The AP 6 is a climate change approach established by ministers from Australia, China, India, Japan, Korea and the U.S. last year in Sydney. It is seen as a potential alternative to Kyoto, which focuses on carbon emissions targets. The AP 6 focuses on sharing the technology that will reduce greenhouse gases.
Canada also expects to see a commitment from APEC leaders to the Doha Development Round of the World Trade Organization, potentially leading to a free trade area in the Asia Pacific. The Doha round aims to lower trade barriers worldwide to enable free trade to flourish, but talks stalled last year because of a split between developed nations and some of the major developing countries.
After the summit, Harper will fly to Canberra where there will be an official welcoming ceremony at Parliament House. Harper has been asked by Australian Prime Minister John Howard to address Parliament—the first Canadian Prime Minister and the sixth foreign leader to do so.
PMO director of communications Sandra Buckler said in the briefing that while in Canberra Harper will talk with Howard and other Australian leaders about Senate reform.
Buckler said the Conservatives have tried to "take some steps to democratize the Canadian Senate, but the Liberal majority has stalled our term limits and our election bills."
"Australia like Canada is a large, modern, diverse and urbanized federation with the Westminster model, and if the Australians can have an accountable and democratic Senate, I'm not sure why Canada can't."
Australian Senators have a maximum six-year term limit while their Canadian counterparts can serve up to 45 years. And thanks to a rotating election system, half the Australian Senate retires every three years, Buckler said.
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