The Yukon should have an action plan to start dealing with climate change in one year's time.

At a climate change workshop at the High Country Inn this morning, Johanna Smith, the Yukon government's climate change co-ordinator, said an action plan should be out next spring.

'This workshop will lead to a summary report,' she said. 'The summary report will also lead to additional feedback. That will lead to an action plan we want to draft this summer. We hope to go to public consultation in the fall.'

'Hopefully, in about a year's time, we'll have a firm action plan to work from.'

The climate change workshop is taking place today and tomorrow. It involves 65 delegates from all levels of government, non-government organizations, business, industry and the general public.

Premier Dennis Fentie told meeting attendees that on top of the work the government has been doing on climate change issues including an additional hydroelectric turbine, ending the electrical Rate Stabilization Fund and the purchase of more efficient vehicles the input from the workshop would be critical in bringing forward an action plan.

'We know the Yukon and the rest of the North is bearing the consequences of climate change. Those consequences are stark and real.

'While we in the North contribute the least, we bear more than our share of the consequences.

'Your participation in this process is obviously vital. A climate change action plan must be one that is developed and supported by you,' the premier said.

Mayor Bev Buckway, who is attending the workshop, said she feels the development of an action plan is a positive move in assisting northern Canadians in dealing with a global problem.

She said with moves like the government cancelling the Rate Stabilization Fund, the city would take a financial hit but would look for ways to reduce its energy consumption.

Karen Baltgailis, the executive director of the Yukon Conservation Society, said she was pleased to see the work on the climate change strategy published in July 2006 begin to be developed into an action plan.

She said while the plan is being developed, she would still like to see Yukoners move toward energy efficiency and reducing their impact on the environment.

'People can upgrade their houses, we can look for alternative energy sources such as wind and solar energy,' she said.

'As individuals, consumption in Yukon is very high. We're pretty much one of the highest contributors (of greenhouse gases) per capita in Canada.'

Baltgailis said she would also like to see initiatives such as a carbon fund which would see heavy pollution emitters pay into a fund and the money used toward sustainable action.

She said she'd like to see it first on a volunteer basis and later to have the government consider making paying into the fund mandatory.

John Streicker, former director of the Northern Climate Exchange and facilitator of the workshop, said he hopes all people attending the two-day meeting realize the size of the climate change problem and keep an open mind in trying to work toward a solution.

'Not all changes are bad. We have to see the changes with objective forms of respect.

'It's not really a change in temperature that's the big deal. Things like temperature will lead to a change in precipitation patterns. Things such as storm damage will be worse,' Streicker said.

'With precipitation, sometimes we're getting it in surges,' he said, explaining that the change in patterns can lead to environmental problems such as flooding and drought.

Streicker said he hoped different regions of the globe could learn to work together in addressing climate change issues as they did addressing problems with the atmosphere's ozone layer.

'That's a great example of where we saw something global in nature and got together to deal with it.

'The solution is shifting the energy economy, it's shifting human behaviour.'

It was important for workshop delegates to realize, he added, that the climate change problem is not a recent issue but has been building over decades and is resulting in severe environmental consequences, particularly for the North.

'The climate change we're feeling right now is the effect of greenhouse gases we released in the '50s ... up until about the 1990s.'

According to the Yukon's climate change strategy, the government will focus on a number of areas to mitigate and adapt to challenges presented with the problem, including:

increasing energy efficiency;

shifting from high carbon to low carbon fuels;

increasing the use of renewable energy sources;

risk sharing via insurance or disaster relief; and

public education and outreach.