Trump cannot stop shift to green technology, Canada minister says - Financial Times

President Donald Trump is powerless to halt the shift from fossil fuels towards green technology, according to Canada’s environment minister, who said her country was helping to fill the gap left by US disengagement from efforts to tackle global warming.

Catherine McKenna said the Paris climate agreement was “non-negotiable and irreversible”, regardless of whether Mr Trump withdraws the US from the accord.

Canada’s Liberal government has seized a prominent role in international climate diplomacy since the election of Justin Trudeau as prime minister in 2015. Last month it hosted talks in Montreal with China and the EU to co-ordinate global efforts.

“We decided that if the US is going to step back, we were going to step up,” Ms McKenna told the Financial Times. “No one government can stop progress.”

The Montreal talks highlighted US isolation on climate policy ahead of a wider international meeting in Bonn next month, when the 195 signatories to the Paris accord will discuss implementation of their carbon reduction commitments.

[The Chinese] see a huge market opportunity. The countries that can figure out how to attract investment in clean technology are the ones that are going to create jobs and growth

Ms McKenna said support for climate action from the EU and China was “unwavering” and predicted that US withdrawal from the Paris deal — repeatedly threatened by Mr Trump though not yet executed — would make little difference.

She said it was possible the US could meet or exceed its Paris obligations irrespective of federal policy because US states, cities and companies were pressing ahead with measures to decarbonise the economy.

“You have the federal administration doing one thing but you have a broad group of states, cities and businesses more resolved than ever before,” she said.

Canada was keen to work with states such as California — the world’s sixth-biggest economy — to advance the green agenda, Ms McKenna added.

The environment minister said the plunging cost of wind and solar power, which is increasingly competitive with fossil fuels in many parts of the world, was changing perceptions of climate action from an economic cost to a growth opportunity.

Political pressure to tackle worsening air pollution, especially in China, was also adding momentum to the push to replace coal-fired power plants and polluting vehicles with cleaner technology.

“China has to act because the people are demanding it,” said Ms McKenna. “But they also see a huge market opportunity. The countries that can figure out how to attract investment in clean technology are the ones that are going to create jobs and growth.”

Environmental issues are among the obstacles in negotiations between the US, Canada and Mexico over a revised Nafta trade agreement, with Mr Trump’s threat to withdraw from the pact hanging over the talks. Ms McKenna said Canada was “working hard” to ensure that a revised deal contained an environmental chapter.

“Countries have a clear right to regulate to protect the environment,” she said. “It [should be] a race for the top, not a race for the bottom.”

For all her green rhetoric, Ms McKenna admits that Canada faces a balancing act between promoting clean technology and avoiding a precipitous decline in its large oil and gas industry. Canada’s oil sands have long drawn ire from climate activists because they are more carbon intensive than most forms of crude.

Ms McKenna said it would be up to the market to determine if oil sands, known for their high costs, could remain competitive.

“We’re in a transition and transitions take time and must be done in a thoughtful way, recognising that people need jobs,” she said. “If you try to push too hard you lose elections. We had a government for 10 years which wouldn’t even utter the words ‘climate change’ and, as a result, our emissions went up.”

Ms McKenna, a human rights lawyer before entering politics, has faced fierce criticism from Canadian conservatives. An opposition MP apologised last month for calling her “climate Barbie”, in reference to her blonde hair.

“I’ve been referred by that ridiculous moniker for a year and a half but it wasn’t until it was used by a colleague in the House of Commons that I called it out,” she said, adding that her critics “need to get with the programme” on gender and climate.

http://ift.tt/2yjQpfX