Implementing the Paris climate agreement and the transition to clean energy will be the focus of the visit by European Climate Action and Energy Commissioner Miguel Arias Cañete to Ottawa on Friday 3 March, to enhance cooperation between the EU and Canada in these areas of mutual interest.
Along with Canadian Environment and Climate Change Minister Catherine McKenna, the commissioner will co-host a roundtable discussion on energy and climate change, bringing together industry, environmental organisations, think-tanks and academia. He will also meet high-level officials responsible for natural resources and innovation, science and economic development, as well as stakeholders in the energy and environment sector.
“The EU and Canada are determined to implement the Paris Agreement and boost the global clean energy transition. Given the current geopolitical uncertainties, our cooperation is more crucial than ever”, Cañete said in a press release published on Thursday 2 March.
A few days previously at the Environment Council, a number of European ministers had highlighted the need for the EU to make preparation for the withdrawal of the Trump administration from climate programmes and to increase cooperation with all parties to take forward the arrangements for implementing the Paris Agreement (see EUROPE 11736).
The commissioner will be able to update the Canadian minister on progress made within the EU on the proposed reform of the European emissions trading system (ETS) for 2021-2030 and the clean energy package recently debated by the Energy Council (see EUROPE 11735 and 11734).
The EU and Canada co-operate in facilitating trade and investment in environmental goods and services and CETA provides for tariff liberalisation for energy-efficient and renewable energy products, the Commission points out in a press release. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)