“The fact that we have achieved convergence and near unanimity on a very focused statement on climate change puts the possibility of a success at COP21 in better shape”, Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, the Commonwealth summit host, said at the close of a three-day gathering on the Mediterranean island.
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“I’m not choosing between the fight against terror and the fight against global climate change”, he said in his opening address, after delegates observed a moment of silence for terrorism victims in France, Lebanon, Iraq, Tunisia and Mali. “We’re talking about the future of the planet, the future of life”.
“For a concrete example of that we need look not look much further than our own story and the difficulty we had getting pipelines built because people didn’t believe we were taking our environmental responsibilities seriously”, he said.
At the COP21 talks aimed at striking a new climate deal, Mr. Trudeau delivered a full-on assertion of a new Canadian will, not merely to improve the country’s emissions record, but to move Canada toward a low-carbon economy. “We must leave them a viable planet”.
The French president also met with Xi on Sunday, with climate change and terrorism likely on the agenda. She says after 25 years, other countries have shown greater leadership and done more innovating in terms of clean energy.
“The Obama administration recognizes that this is a fundamental competitive advantage for the United States”, the former USA official said, but getting such funds approved by a Republican-controlled Congress could be hard.
During the leaders’ meeting, Trudeau told Poroshenko that Ukraine has Canada’s full support in its struggle for territorial integrity and that he was willing to visit Ukraine upon Poroshenko’s invitation, Ukrainian news agency Interfax reported.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said there is a “tremendous opportunity” for Canada to be a “purveyor of solutions that the world desperately needs” when he spoke at a news conference at the Paris climate conference this morning.
Those demands include an end to subsidies for fossil fuels and large-scale investment in renewable energy, she said.
At a joint press conference, Trudeau said he and Hollande discussed a “broad range” of topics, including free trade, climate change and the fight against the Islamic State.
Stewart Elgie, a law professor and director of the Institute of the Environment at the University of Ottawa, said one of the biggest challenges will be figuring out who takes on the biggest – and the smallest – burden when it comes to meeting national targets. And last week in Malta, Trudeau pledged $2.65 billion over five years to help developing countries tackle climate change.
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During the conference on Monday, Canada was credited with a $30-million contribution to help the world’s poorest countries deal with immediate climate threats.
