Canada‘s Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault on Saturday leaves for Beijing to hitch talks on combating local weather change and preserving biodiversity, the primary Canadian minister to go to China in 4 years.
A month in the past, U.S. local weather envoy John Kerry visited China for comparable discussions. Other G7 international locations together with France and Germany have additionally despatched local weather representatives since COVID-19 journey restrictions had been lifted.
“I’m hoping that we can have open and frank conversations about a number of issues relating to climate change,” Guilbeault advised Reuters on Friday. Both Canada and China are giant emitters and “maybe there are ways we can cooperate”, he stated.
Guilbeault, a former advocate for environmental teams together with Greenpeace, will attend the annual assembly of the China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development (CCICED), an local weather advisory group to the Chinese authorities, from Aug. 28-30.
Guilbeault stated two necessary points he desires to deliver up are methane emissions reductions and a world renewable vitality goal, which is being mentioned forward of the United Nations local weather change convention later this yr.
“There’s a lot of low hanging fruits in terms of methane emission,” he stated. “This is a conversation we can have with the Chinese government and… maybe we could work on that together.”
Guilbeault stated he additionally desires to comply with up on a U.N. nature summit hosted by Canada and presided over by China late final yr, which culminated in a world deal to guard the ecosystems that prop up half the world financial system.
Canada is looking for China’s cooperation on the local weather regardless of tensions, together with current allegations that Beijing interfered within the final two federal elections, and after an extended standoff involving two Canadian males that resulted in 2021.
Chinese authorities took two males, Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig, into custody in December 2018 shortly after Canadian police detained Meng Wanzhou, the chief monetary officer of Chinese telecoms gear big Huawei Technologies Co Ltd, on a U.S. warrant.
The males had been launched on the identical day in September 2021 when the U.S. Justice Department dropped its extradition request for Meng and he or she returned to China.
Source: www.anews.com.tr
