Climate leaders from across the Americas will join Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne and Québec Premier Philippe Couillard at Ontario’s Climate Summit of the Americas in Toronto from July 7-9, 2015.

Government leaders representing regions across the Americas, including Brazil, Mexico, the U.S. and Canada, will also be in Toronto to participate in the summit.

The goal of the summit is to mobilize and advance collective action on climate change ahead of the Conference of the Parties in Paris in December 2015. It builds on recent action such as Ontario’s announcement of a cap and trade program to limit the main sources of greenhouse gas pollution and Governor Jerry Brown’s announcement last month of an effort by  12 subnational leaders, including Ontario and British Columbia, from seven countries spanning three continents – the Under 2 Memorandum of Understanding – to limit warming to below 2 C.

Keynote speakers will include  former U.S. vice-president and current chair of The Climate Reality Project, Al Gore, California Governor Jerry Brown, and former president of Mexico and current chair of the Global Commission on the Economy and Climate, Felipe Calderón.

Ontario’s Minister of the Environment and Climate Change, Glen Murray had this to say of the keynote speakers

” [They] are at the forefront of the fight against climate change. Ontario is proud to feature them as keynote speakers at our Climate Summit of the Americas. We look forward to hearing and learning from their expertise and insights on effectively fighting climate change and how collaborative efforts such as our summit can lead to real progress, improved productivity across all sectors of the economy, greater global prosperity and ultimately a better quality of life for all of us.”