The Canadian Press
Mike Blanchfield
OTTAWA–The European Union’s environment commissioner wants to join forces with Canada to “defend” the Paris climate change accord in the face of an uncertain political landscape in the U.S. under Donald Trump.
“Canada and the European Union are committed to implement Paris, defend Paris,” EU Climate Action and Energy Commissioner Miguel Arias Canete said last night on a visit to Ottawa.
“Now we have a common task–we have to implement the rule book of Paris,” he noted.
Canete said the EU wants to work constructively with the new Trump administration but can’t predict what the future will bring.
The one thing he guaranteed is that the 28-country European bloc would fight for the Paris accord and would build alliances, including with Canada, to do just that.
“We have only one planet. Global warming is a reality,” Canete warned.
Canete met with Environment minister Catherine McKenna, who has kept a noticeably lower profile on Canada-U.S. relations since Trump’s victory in November.
However, the minister did take part Wednesday in a phone call with her U.S. counterpart, Scott Pruitt, the newly-appointed head of the Environmental Protection Agency.
“I emphasized that our government is committed to the Paris agreement,” McKenna said at a joint press conference with Canete at the European Union embassy in Ottawa.
“We’re committed to taking serious climate action, and that we see that as a real economic opportunity.”
McKenna said the fight against climate change presents “huge” economic opportunities in clean growth, and she pointed to China, which made a strong contribution towards the outcome in Paris.
“The opportunity is in the trillions of dollars when it comes to clean technology,” she stressed.
“So we think this is a clear economic opportunity, but we need to work at it and we need to bring everyone along.”
McKenna said the “market moved” positively when Paris was signed, and that was a signal that a “lower carbon future” was inevitable and would create jobs.
