America will find itself on the 'wrong side of history', the Chinese minister says
Talks between three of the largest economies still committed to the Paris Agreement opened on Monday, with EU Climate Commissioner Wopke Hoekstra and ministers from Canada and China reaffirming their support for the 2015 climate pact.
The meeting between a trio representing two of the world’s three largest economies and nearly a third of global GDP presented an “opportunity to help shape what the next decade of climate action must deliver”, Hoekstra said in opening remarks on Monday.
Canada’s Minister for Environment, Climate Change and Nature, Julie Dabrusin, spoke of climate action being an “economic necessity” as well as a global obligation, and stressed the importance of demonstrating the “tangible impact” of climate action on citizens’ lives.
The meeting is the tenth such summit since, as China’s Minister for Ecology and Environment Huang Runqiu recalled, President Trump first pulled the United States out of the global commitment to limit warming to as close to 1.5 degrees Celsius as possible.
