Jonathan Wilkinson is Canada’s minister of environment and climate change.
This story was originally published by Canada’s National Observer and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration.
U.S. President Joe Biden’s first week in office has offered a welcome dose of climate optimism. Not only did Biden win a mandate with climate action as a central pillar of “building back better” from the pandemic, he has also assembled a cabinet and White House team comprised of climate experts to deliver an all-of-government effort.
Canada welcomes the return of the U.S. to the Paris Agreement, and we look forward to forging new opportunities for bilateral climate cooperation with our largest trading partner and closest neighbor. This will be facilitated by the fact we already have a solid relationship and record of accomplishment working with Biden. In 2015, shortly after Canadians elected us to deliver ambitious climate action, then–Vice President Biden visited Canada to urge our government to continue taking action on issues such as climate change. And we did just that.
Working with Canadians, we developed and began to implement Canada’s first... Read more