Environment Minister to Visit China to Discuss Climate, Rebuild Ties

Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault speaks to the press during the Climate Positive Energy Initiative conference in Toronto on Aug. 10, 2023. Arlyn McAdorey/The Canadian Press

Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault will visit China at the end of the month, hoping to nudge Beijing on issues like climate, but also to rebuild strained ties.

Environment Canada has yet to officially announce the trip, but Mr. Guilbeault spoke about the visit with two outlets that published reports on Aug. 16.

“Addressing global environmental challenges requires China’s engagement,” Mr. Guilbeault’s office told The Epoch Times in a statement.

Mr. Guilbeault will visit China from Aug. 26 to 31 to participate in the annual meeting of the China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development.

His office said this will be an opportunity to “drive cooperation and ambition on a number of environmental issues, including the implementation of the Global Biodiversity Framework agreed to at COP15.”

The United Nations Biodiversity Conference (COP15) was held in Montreal in late 2022, but was chaired by China.

The visit by a minister will be the first since 2018. Relations between the two countries plunged into turmoil at the end of 2018 due to the Meng Wangzhou affair, with Beijing arbitrarily detaining Canadians Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor.

Mr. Guilbeault’s visit comes at a time when Canadians have been sensitized in recent months about the Chinese regime’s interference in the country’s democratic processes.

A stream of national security leaks in the press have led to calls to hold a public inquiry into the matter. The Liberals resisted the idea at first, but talks have been held over the summer with opposition parties on how to proceed.

“Maybe some [political opponents] will try and attack me” for going to China at this time, Mr. Guilbeault reportedly told the National Observer in an exclusive English media interview.

“I think it’s worth it for me to go, to advance this collaboration on climate, on biodiversity, and perhaps also to start rebuilding a bridge with China at the diplomatic level,” the minister reportedly told French CBC in a separate interview.

The minister’s office would not discuss the diplomatic objectives of the trip.

An official from Global Affairs Canada also declined to comment on the diplomatic objectives and deferred to Environment Canada.

The trip is in line with the Indo-Pacific Strategy released by the federal government last year, the official said. The strategy calls for addressing disrupting actions by China, but also cooperating on issues such as climate.

“We will challenge China when we ought to, and cooperate with China when we must. Environmental action is a must,” said Mr. Guilbeault’s office.

The Liberal government is going full steam ahead with measures to reduce emissions, from imposing a financial cost on the use of fossil fuels through the carbon tax and Clean Fuel Regulations, to establishing electricity production standards with its recently published draft Clean Energy Regulations.

Meanwhile, China, the world’s largest polluter, has recently pushed back on outside pressures to alter its behaviour.

Chinese Leader Xi Jinping said in July, around the time of a visit by U.S. climate envoy John Kerry, that China must determine its own objectives without interference.

Mr. Xi said China is committed to tackling climate change, but “the path, method, pace and intensity to achieve this goal should and must be determined by ourselves, and will never be influenced by others.”

Reuters contributed to this report.