Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and French President Emmanuel Macron have signed a new bilateral pact aimed at further combatting climate change.
Canada’s federal Environment and Climate Change Minister Catherine McKenna was with Prime Minister Trudeau on Tuesday when he signed the new France-Canada partnership on climate and environment in a ceremony at the French presidential palace during the first day of an official visit to Paris.
The France-Canada partnership, which includes pushing for a global price on carbon and reductions to transport-related emissions, falls in line with Ottawa’s for an upcoming G7 summit in Quebec this June.
And with France having the G7 presidency in 2019, senior Canadian officials said, the hope is that the exclusive group of nations will continue working toward the goals laid out by the Paris Agreement, with the international community following their lead. What remains unclear is how U.S. President Donald Trump will respond to any perceived attempt to force him into a stronger position on climate change, though the Canadian officials have insisted that no one is trying to back the U.S. president into a corner.
Ottawa is also hoping that the new partnership will convince the French that Canada is serious about fighting climate change — and that ratification of the new Canada-EU free trade deal will eventually follow.There have been concerns in France that investor-protection clauses within the Comprehensive Economic Trade Agreement — or CETA, as the Canada-EU deal is known — would lead to weakened environmental rules.
