Canada-U.K. sign deal to curb coal usage with concerns on climate change
Ottawa, Nov 17 (IBNS): While the U.S. pulled themselves out of the Paris Accord, Canada and the U.K. have signed a deal with an aim to curbing the usage of coal keeping the climate change in mind, media reports said.
The two countries have agreed to phase out coal usage.
Canadian Environment Minister Catherine McKenna along with her British counterpart signed the deal during a meeting on the climate change at the United Nations on Thursday.
Eighteen countries, five provinces and two states have signed the deal.
Four provinces in Canada, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick are opting out from the deal as they are still dependent on coal for electricity. McKenna, however, assured she will try to phase out coal usage from the four provinces as well by 2030.
Saskatchewan Environment Minister said he is negotiating with McKenna over the deal.
McKenna, who was in Germany for the meeting, said: "We're seeing huge momentum for this move away from coal and towards clean power."
The alliance of the 18 countries will work on to get another 32 countries on board by the next climate meeting, scheduled to be held in November 2018.
The biggest emitting countries like India, the U.S. and China and even host Germany skipped the meet.
Germany's excessive dependence on coal for domestic needs is assumed to be the reason behind the skip.
The environment issue seems to be a major issue for the federal government of Canada as the country is even trying to include the climate issue in other deals as well.
Canada wants a new North Atlantic Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with a reference to the global climate issues and make necessary steps to tackle them.
In the negotiations, Canada is working for a better labour and environmental provisions.
Both Canada and the US are in favour of making an environment agreement in the new NAFTA instead of designing a separate deal.
(Reporting by Suman Das)
Image: facebook.com/McKenna.Ottawa
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