The Yukon Party government has finally released its climate change strategy after almost four years of governing the territory.

'This strategy is a critical step forward. We can respond and plan for what we already know are significant impacts from global warming here in the Yukon,' Premier Dennis Fentie said Tuesday afternoon as he released the 14-page document to the media .

The strategy is actually a framework that lays out the goals for the future creation of a climate change action plan.

'This is the guide, the framework that will dictate and direct government and others on the development and implementation of the strategic action plan,' said Fentie.

It is the action plan that will contain the 'real and tangible initiatives,' he added.

Fentie was unable to provide a date on when the action plan will be released to the public.

'I'm not going to guess at the timing. This is far too important to start putting arbitrary timelines on something. We've got to do things here that make a difference and truly allow us to deal with the impacts we are facing today.'

Work on the action plan and consultations with the Department of Energy, Mines and Resource, Department of Environment, first nation governments, municipalities, industries, stakeholders, federal government will begin immediately, he said.

'It's a plan to plan to plan to develop a plan,' said NDP Environment critic Lorraine Peter. 'There's no concrete commitment to take action on climate change.'

What the strategy does present is four goals:

• to enhance awareness and understanding of climate change impacts on the Yukon's environment, people and economy;

• to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the Yukon through efficiency improvements in the short term and additional measures related to infrastructure replacement in the longer term;

• to building Yukon environmental, social and economic systems to adapt to climate change impacts and to position them to take advantage of any opportunities presented by climate change; and

• to support efforts to establish the Yukon as a northern leader to applied climate change research and innovations.

The framework document proposes to undertake these goals by disseminating Yukon-specific climate change information, continuing research and education especially in relation to the Northern Climate ExChange, to look for alternatives to diesel for electricity generation, to encourage the procurement of low-emission goods and services, to intiatitive energy efficiency measures for government fleet vehicles and to adopt mitigation and adaptation measures.

'This is a framework so that government can now go to work,' said Fentie. 'We will soon have tangible tools at our disposal, especially in areas of adaptation and mitigation when it comes to climate change. We have to do that; that's a must, that's a reality.'

Liberal Leader Arthur Mitchell said after almost four years of waiting for the government to release a climate change strategy, what was tabled is 'almost offensive.

'After four years, where's the action plan? It's a strategy that says we need an action plan.'

Mitchell said the Liberal party has included a similar climate change strategy framework in its platform for the pending territorial election and was able to do so without four years with the resources of government at their disposal.

But Peter said the Liberal government, which fell from power in 2002, also did little to move forward on addressing climate change in the North.

Bob Van Dijken, who has been working on climate change for years and is currently associated with the International Polar Year, said he saw similar documentation to the just-released strategy in December 2001 when the Liberals were still in power.

'It's been a long time coming,' said Van Dijken.

The document, however, is sorely lacking in actual concrete terms and timelines, he said.

'One could question why it would take this much time to come up with what appears to be the start of the process,' said Van Dijken.

Climate change appears to be one of the projects of territorial government that falls by the wayside, he said, despite a lot of basic homework having already been done in the past.

However, the document does provide some good pillars to start work, he said.

He is concerned, though, that the territory may have waited too long to present its strategy and that federal funding that was previously available may be gone as the new Conservative government reassesses its approach to climate change on a national level.

'It might be a number of years before those partnership opportunities become available again,' he said.

'The Yukon Party government's decision to release this strategy now is little more than an election ploy,' said Peter.

Mitchell agreed, stating the premier can't claim that climate change is important to his government when it was barely mentioned for the party's first 46 months in office.

'He's only proving he's capable of announcing something in the last 60 days,' said Mitchell.

'Everyone seems believe this is coming out pre-election,' added John Streicker, co-ordinator with the Northern Climate ExChange.

That doesn't have to take away from the document, though, he added.

'It is good to set out a strategy or no one knows where the responsibility lies,' said Streicker.

He added that more concrete regulations and goals are necessary for addressing climate change in the territory.

'The problem of climate change is massive. We're not doing enough about climate change across the board,' he said.

But the latest document is the government's declaration that the problem does exist and it will be moving forward on it, he said.

The real concern now is the lack of timelines on when the action plan will be released and consultations will begin, said Streicker, adding that this can't become just another way to hold up progress.

'(Climate change is) the most difficult problem facing the world right now and the Yukon is an important piece of that puzzle,' he said.

Fentie maintained Tuesday the low emission levels in the Yukon, less than one per cent of the country's total, must continue to be acknowledged on a go-forward basis.

'We have to always make the case that though we emit very little in our contribution to the phenomena of global warming, we in the North experience a major, significant impact,' he said. 'We are being very responsible in the North.'

The strategy will help define the Yukon's role on a national and international level in addressing the challenges of climate change, he added, and will allow for more clearly-defined partnerships to be created.

He added the release of the strategy and timing of the election, which must be called by Nov. 4, are not connected.

'We're releasing it because it's concluded. Done. We're still government. There's still work being done and this is an example of work that has finished and we're making it public,' he said.

'If we could have released it sooner, then fine, but it wasn't completed. Once completed, we moved immediately to release it into the public domain.'

According to the inside cover of the document, the strategy was published in July.