MANILA — Canada is pursuing efforts to reduce consumption of coal energy in order to mitigate the impact of climate change.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stressed the urgency of reducing the dependency on fossil fuels and shifting towards the use of renewable energy.
“Coal represents a challenge for the world in not meeting the climate change problem. Unless we reduce the coal consumption we are not going to have the capability to prevent catastrophic climate change,” Trudeau said in a press briefing held Tuesday at the International Media Center for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit in World Trade Center.Canada assures that it will work with its international allies to reduce coal consumption and coal related emissions as well as to utilize alternative sources of energy.
“Canada has taken significant steps in phasing out coal. We are going to ensure that this will be successful. We are investing in renewables,” Trudeau said.
“We need to reduce fossil fuels in order to move towards low carbon economy. We need to create much greater energy efficiency while ensuring the way we are extracting and processing these fuels has the greatest minimal impact on the environment,” he added.
In 2015, Canada has committed to provide USD 2.65 billion for the next five years to help developing countries fight climate change through investments in renewable energy projects such as wind, solar and hydroelectricity.
This contribution will support the commitment Canada made under the 2009 Copenhagen Accord to work with partners to jointly mobilize, from a wide variety of sources USD 100 billion annually by 2020. (Aerol John Pateña/PNA)
