Two top Canadian ministers said on Wednesday that they had resolved to cut global-warming emissions of cars and trucks sold in Canada by 25 percent by the end of the decade.
The commitment means that the auto industry faces steep cuts in greenhouse gases in Canada as well as in California and the Northeastern US, a geographic expanse that encompasses nearly one-third of the cars and trucks sold in North America.
The Canadian ministers said they expected to conclude soon several years of negotiations with the auto industry over the government's 25 percent emissions reduction goal, and they made clear in a joint interview Wednesday that they would not settle for a lower reduction number.
"We're very clear where we want to go," said John Efford, Canada's natural resources minister. "We are not backing off from our position. Are we going to say 10 percent is OK? Fifteen percent? No. Twenty-five percent is our goal, and the auto industry clearly understands that."
Stephane Dion, Canada's environment minister, said "the fact that California has moved, the fact that some northern states like Maine and New York are saying that they are considering to take the same regulations as California, if you add Canada to that, it's a third of the market. I don't see why North America can't be a leader instead of a follower."
Several Northeastern states follow California's air quality regulations, and in a meeting earlier this month representatives from those states indicated they were likely to follow California's new greenhouse gas regulation, adopted in September, which lays out a 30 percent emissions reduction by 2016.
The California regulation still faces an almost certain legal challenge from the auto industry.
Dion and Efford also met with Fran Pavley, the California assemblywoman who sponsored that state's greenhouse gas regulation. Pavley brought a letter from a top official in Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's administration seeking to work cooperatively with Canada on the issue.
"We can drive the market forces," said Pavley. "We can leverage the market forces if California joins with some states in the United States and Canada, which will help encourage the automobile manufacturers."
Taiwan’s Lee Chia-hao (李佳豪) on Sunday won a silver medal at the All England Open Badminton Championships in Birmingham, England, a career best. Lee, 25, took silver in the final of the men’s singles against world No. 1 Shi Yuqi (石宇奇) of China, who won 21-17, 21-19 in a tough match that lasted 51 minutes. After the match, the Taiwanese player, who ranks No. 22 in the world, said it felt unreal to be challenging an opponent of Shi’s caliber. “I had to be in peak form, and constantly switch my rhythm and tactics in order to score points effectively,” he said. Lee got
EMBRACING TAIWAN: US lawmakers have introduced an act aiming to replace the use of ‘Chinese Taipei’ with ‘Taiwan’ across all Washington’s federal agencies A group of US House of Representatives lawmakers has introduced legislation to replace the term “Chinese Taipei” with “Taiwan” across all federal agencies. US Representative Byron Donalds announced the introduction of the “America supports Taiwan act,” which would mandate federal agencies adopt “Taiwan” in place of “Chinese Taipei,” a news release on his page on the US House of Representatives’ Web site said. US representatives Mike Collins, Barry Moore and Tom Tiffany are cosponsors of the legislation, US political newspaper The Hill reported yesterday. “The legislation is a push to normalize the position of Taiwan as an autonomous country, although the official US
CHANGE OF TONE: G7 foreign ministers dropped past reassurances that there is no change in the position of the G7 members on Taiwan, including ‘one China’ policies G7 foreign ministers on Friday took a tough stance on China, stepping up their language on Taiwan and omitting some conciliatory references from past statements, including to “one China” policies. A statement by ministers meeting in Canada mirrored last month’s Japan-US statement in condemning “coercion” toward Taiwan. Compared with a G7 foreign ministers’ statement in November last year, the statement added members’ concerns over China’s nuclear buildup, although it omitted references to their concerns about Beijing’s human rights abuses in Xinjiang, Tibet and Hong Kong. Also missing were references stressing the desire for “constructive and stable relations with China” and
Foreign ministers of leading Western democracies sought to show a united front in Canada yesterday after seven weeks of rising tensions between US allies and US President Donald Trump over his upending of foreign policy on Ukraine and imposing of tariffs. The G7 ministers from the UK, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the US, along with the EU, convened in the remote tourist town of La Malbaie, nestled in the Quebec hills, for two days of meetings that in the past have broadly been consensual on the issues they face. Top of the agenda for Washington’s partners would be getting a
RSS