Dear Minister Guilbeault,
it might be presumptuous of me to address You so directly, and allow me to apologize in advance for taking Your precious time. However, I found Your letter, addressed to residents of the Laurier-Sante-Marie, and I decided to address you as Minister of Environment and Climate Change.
Let me introduce myself. I am chemist from Zagreb, Croatia, and I came to Montreal in early February, to work at the McGill University as a Marie Sklodowska Curie fellow. However, more important to You is that I am also the Ambassador of the EU Climate Pact.
As a scientist and long-term activist in the fields of environmental protection, human rights and peace, in the beginning of 2020 I authored “A Plea for Systematic Climate Action” (attached to this e-mail), which was signed by more than 550 Croatian scientists, and addressed to Croatian state authorities. As a central part, this Plea articulates 11 clear demands, together with a call for better collaboration of state institutions with academic sector. This launched an informal initiative Scientists for Climate – Croatia, which very successfully promoted a stronger involvement of the scientific community in the adoption and implementation of climate-relevant policies. Additionally, the initiative is very active in communication of climate-related topics to the general public. ž
As an Ambassador of the EU Climate Pact, I will continue with these activities. One of very important pledges in this regard is a vivid exchange of knowledge and experience with similar initiatives in Canada. Obviously, such an exchange with Canadian decision makers is more than desirable. So, it would be a great honor for me if You could take some time and give me the opportunity to talk to You about climate issues and to share experiences of the two so different countries. Indeed, Canada and Croatia are environmentally and socio-politically very different countries, experiencing different consequences of climate change. Yet, we together share the same planet, and only through a joint global action we can successfully combat ongoing global climate change.
In the hope of positive response to this request, I cordially express my sincere regards,
Nikola Biliškov, PhD