Canada Turned Down Invitation to Join U.S-Mexico Climate Deal

The Canadian government turned down an invitation to take part in a joint climate initiative announced last week by the United States and Mexico.

“On March 24, three days before the United States and Mexico announced they would partner on a high-level bilateral clean energy and climate policy task force, U.S. officials approached Canadian counterparts asking them to join the effort,” three sources told Reuters investigative reporter Mike de Souza and Washington correspondent Valerie Volcovici. Canada declined, explaining that it had not yet finalized its domestic climate strategy.

“In December, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said in a televised interview with the CBC that his government preferred a continental response to climate change rather than imposing a unilateral price on carbon on Canada’s oil sector, its fastest growing source of greenhouse gas emissions,” Reuters writes. But “Harper’s conservative government opposes carbon pricing policies, which have support from opposition parties.”