Canada helps keep Paris climate protocol alive
OTTAWA — Canada’s environment minister hopes a gathering this weekend of the world’s largest economies and polluters will provide a show of strength for continuing with the Paris climate change agreement, despite the pending withdrawal of the U.S.
Catherine McKenna will host environment ministers and officials from 30 other nations in Montreal, at an event designed largely to help prevent an American retreat from the climate agreement from pushing the whole thing off the rails.
“I think it’s really important we advance the Paris agreement agenda and show we are strongly aligned on ambitious climate action,” she told The Canadian Press this week.
While not an official meeting for the Paris protocol, which is governed by the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, the gathering is a more informal way for some of the world’s leading powers to brag about what they’ve done so far and push each other to keep going, even as the U.S. prepares to withdraw.
McKenna is cohosting with Xie Zhenhua, the Chinese special representative for climate change affairs, and Miguel Arias Canete, EU commissioner for climate action and energy.
The Paris agreement was signed by 195 nations in December 2015, committing almost every country on the planet to work toward keeping global warming to an increase of less than two degrees above pre-industrial levels, through national emissions reductions targets, mitigation for climate change events and assistance to the developing world.
It came into force in 2016, but the rules for implementation are still being worked out and the work plan for full implementation will be updated at the next UN climate meeting scheduled for Bonn, Germany, in November.
The meeting was conceived last May, when Canada and other G7 nations were concerned about U.S. signals it was pulling back from Paris. McKenna flew to Berlin to meet with Xie and Canete to figure out a way to keep Paris moving forward. Two weeks later, Donald Trump announced he would begin the process to formally withdraw the U.S. from the protocol. He can’t officially signal intent to withdraw until 2019 and can’t actually leave until November 2020.
The U.S. is sending an official to Montreal at least, which Eric Flanagan, director of federal policy for the Pembina Institute, says it shows “(President Trump) still wants to be at the table.”