EU calls on Canada to defend Paris climate accord against global ‘uncertainties’

OTTAWA (NEWS1130) – The European Union’s environment commissioner is making a noisy pitch about joining forces with Canada to fight to preserve the Paris climate change accord in the face of “geopolitical uncertainties.”

EU Climate Action and Energy Commissioner Miguel Arias Canete didn’t mention Donald Trump by name, but his statement Thursday prior to his arrival in Ottawa seemed squarely aimed at the US president.

Canete is to meet with Environment Minister Catherine McKenna, who has kept a noticeably lower profile on Canada-US relations since Trump’s victory in November.

Trump has famously described climate change as a hoax, though some of the cabinet appointees have recently testified during their confirmation hearings that they don’t share that view.

And his newly installed energy secretary, former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, once said during his own bid for the Republican nomination that he would eliminate the very department of which he now in charge.

Perry has since said he would work to develop American energy in all forms, including oil and gas as well as renewables such as wind and solar. He has also disavowed his 2011 talk of dissolving the Energy Department.

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