McKenna takes to Twitter with anti-coal message during American pro-coal event
Posted Nov 13, 2017 03:21:35 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
OTTAWA – Canada’s environment minister appears to be trolling the United States government over its pro-coal power stance from the United Nations climate change talks in Germany today.
Catherine McKenna is in Bonn for COP23, where countries are working on how the Paris climate change agreement will be implemented and how countries will be held accountable for their targets to cut emissions.
But the big talk today is the only event hosted by the U.S. government _ which is no longer committed to the Paris pact _ where officials from the Trump administration extolled the virtues of clean coal and nuclear power as options to cut emissions, given that the world’s reliance on fossil fuels isn’t going to evaporate overnight.
The event struggled as protesters dominated the attendees in the room and then shut it down for more than 10 minutes with a flash mob song.
While the event was underway, McKenna staged her own protest of sorts on Twitter, using her account to promote alternatives like solar power and suggest that phasing-out coal is a massive opportunity for innovation.
Later this week. McKenna and British climate minister Claire Perry are to launch an alliance to get the rest of the world to sign a pledge to move away from coal.
