Ontario, Quebec, California formally sign Paris accord
California governor Jerry Brown termed himself along with Ontario premier Kathlene Wynne and Quebec's Philippe Couillard as "insurgent forces" in the world's fight against the climate change.
Hitting out at the US president, Brown said it is absolutely irrelevant to see whether Donald Trump is trying to make the Paris Accord unsuccessful.
Brown was quoted by the Star: "Whatever anyone else does and whatever Mr. Trump does in Washington, China is on the move with a carbon market."
“There’s a lot of money on the other side and that’s the status quo. We’re the insurgent forces transforming. That’s where it’s at. In our systems, the sub-national jurisdictions have a power,” he said.
After January 1, the emissions cap programme of Ontario will be integrated with Quebec and California which will enable them to jointly hold the carbon auctions.
"This is the next step in a long and difficult journey to de-carbonize the economies of the world. We’re de-carbonizing our own economies but then setting in motion the example that will be picked up by other provinces, other states, and other regions around the world," Brown told media.
On the other hand, Ontario premier Wynne said though Canadian present prime minister Justin Trudeau is supporting the deal, former PM Stephen Harper was against it.
Wynne told media "Remember when I and Premier Couillard moved on this and made these decisions, we were living in a country that had a federal government that was not interested in working with us.”
“That’s the importance of the sub-nationals,” she said.
“We are now standing here having agreed on creating the largest carbon market in North America. It is an extremely important step. The two largest provinces, the biggest state, working together,” the premier was further quoted by the Star.
Over the concern for the global rise in temperature, 195 countries came together in 2015 and formed the Paris Accord with an aim to control the global temperature caused by the emissions of harmful gases into the atmosphere.
In 2017, US President Donald Trump pulled his country out of the deal, claiming it would benefit only India and China.
Earlier in 2015, the US signed the deal under then president Barrack Obama.
(Reporting by Souvik Ghosh)
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