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Hollande calls on Canada to fight climate change

AFP
AFP - [email protected]
Hollande calls on Canada to fight climate change
France's Hollande wants Canada to do more to fight climate change.Photo: Alain Jocard/AFP

French President François Hollande, whose country will host global climate talks next year, told Canadian lawmakers on Monday that he is counting their oil-exporting country to help in the fight against warming.

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As Hollande began preparations for the next global climate conference on ways to slow warming in Paris next year, the French leader said he is counting on Canada to "be fully committed to the fight against global warming," and do its part.

In November 2015, Hollande will gather leaders from all over the world in the French capital for the United Nations Climate Change Conference or COP21, seeking to negotiate new emissions limits.

Energy exporters and major developed economies like Canada will be asked to make sacrifices, but Canada has shown no willingness to rein in its energy industry and is planning huge new pipelines.

Indeed, Canada is one of the world's top polluters with 1.9 percent of total emissions, and is widely expected to miss its 2020 target for reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 17 percent.

When asked, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper pointed to his government's efforts to reduce emissions sector by sector.

He said Canada has taken steps, including phasing out coal-fired power plants.

But a recent independent parliamentary report said there is currently no plan for reducing emissions from the Alberta oil sands, which are Canada's fastest growing source of carbon emissions.

"We recognize as obviously does France, (that) there is a lot of work to be done at the international level to get what all of us want, which is a global agreement that will create binding obligations on all major emitters," Harper said.

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