Canada joins with international partners to make progress on fighting climate change

September 13, 2018 – San Francisco, California

Canadian families and communities are seeing the costs of climate change first hand, from droughts and heat waves to wildfires and floods. Canada has a plan to fight climate change and it’s working. Not only is it cutting pollution and creating good middle class jobs at home, it is part of growing international efforts that are achieving results globally.

Canada made important progress with major international partners today in the fight against climate change.

While in San Francisco for a global climate action summit convened by California Governor Jerry Brown, the Minister of Environment and Climate Change, Catherine McKenna, met with leading countries, states, cities and businesses to build new partnerships and strengthen existing ones to fight climate change and drive clean growth.

That included announcing with the United Kingdom that 10 new members are joining the Powering Past Coal Alliance, which commits governments to reducing pollution by phasing out traditional coal-fired electricity. New members include the States of Connecticut, Hawaii, Minnesota, and New York, the Australia Capital Territory, the Balaeric Islands (Spain), Wales, and the cities of Rotterdam (Netherlands), Los Angeles (U.S.) and Honolulu (U.S.). Canada and the United Kingdom launched the Powering Past Coal Alliance in 2017. It now includes 74 signatories.

During the summit, the Powering Past Coal Alliance premiered a short-film “Common Sense, Common Ground.” The film showcases a successful example of coal phase-out in Washington state, illustrating how opposing parties came together to create a fair deal, and serve as a model for winding down coal plants worldwide. The film is the first of many tools and resources to result from a partnership, announced in April 2018, between the Alliance and Bloomberg Philanthropies.

Minister McKenna also joined members of the North American Climate Leaders Dialogue, which includes Mexico and a bipartisan group of US governors, to support increased collaboration on fighting climate change. The group agreed to support cleaner cars, clean electricity and protecting nature.

Canada also used the opportunity to accept the U.S. Climate Alliance’s Short-Lived Climate Pollutants Challenge. The initiative, led by 17 US states, targets the reduction of “super” climate pollutants that have disproportionately negative impacts on climate and health.

Minister McKenna’s announcements with international partners comes on the eve of the G7 meetings in Halifax, where Canada will continue to advance international climate priorities. A top priority for McKenna is having all signatories to the Paris Agreement conform around a clear set of rules for implementing the agreement.

By working closely with national, provincial, state and municipal governments, Canada is helping to build momentum for global action on climate change and clean growth around the world. Countries will meet in Poland in December for the 24^th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.