Editorial | Canada climate talks can warm China ties
- Beijing visit by environment minister, the first by member of Ottawa’s cabinet in four years, may help improve relations
Climate-change denialism may defy the current wave of northern hemisphere wildfires, heatwaves and floods, but it cannot stop nations putting aside their differences and coming together to defend the planet. The most notable example is American climate envoy John Kerry’s visit to China despite a freeze on relations over top-level US contact with Taiwan.
The latest is to be found in the first visit to China by a Canadian cabinet minister, environment chief Steven Guilbeault, in more than four years.
It is that long since Ottawa plunged relations to a historic low by acting on a US warrant to arrest Huawei Technologies’ chief financial officer, Meng Wanzhou, at Vancouver airport in connection with fraud charges that were later dismissed. Days later, China detained two Canadian nationals on security and espionage charges.
All were released two years ago.
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US climate envoy John Kerry meets China’s top diplomat Wang Yi in latest bid to repair frayed ties
The world would be a better place without climate change, but the examples of China, the United States and Canada are reminders that, pragmatically, they can still find issues in common to work on, and that it is better to engage than to sever ties altogether.
