Trudeau Reaffirms Climate Change Fight Will Go On Despite Trump

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, clad in a life vest from a kayaking trip on Monday, reaffirmed Canada’s commitment to the Paris Agreement on climate change in the wake of U.S. President Donald Trump pulling out of it.

“The future is still bright for those who have the courage to confront hard truths and the confidence to stay the course,” Trudeau said during a speech commemorating World Environment Day in Southern Ontario.

“Canada will not back down from our commitment to fight climate change,” he continued, alluding to Trump’s reneging on the U.S.’s commitment to the pact last week. “And we are not alone. Around the world, nearly every country is on our side. ... We can’t walk away from the reality of climate change, and we won’t walk away from a global plan that has a realistic chance of fighting it.”

“We have a responsibility to future generations, and we will uphold it,” Trudeau said. “We have a chance to build an economy that is clean, that is growing, that is forward-looking, and we will not let that opportunity pass us by.”

Earlier in the day, during an appearance on “Live with Kelly and Ryan,” Trudeau spoke more explicitly about where he and Trump disagree.

“Today is World Environment Day; we don’t agree on that, because I think there’s a lot of good jobs in the environment that we’re building for,” Trudeau said of Trump. The U.S. president has repeatedly cited controversial studies claiming the Paris Agreement will destroy jobs and hurt the U.S. economy.

While out in his kayak on Niagara-On-The-Lake earlier in the day, Trudeau paddled up to some residents to chat with them about climate change and how high the water level on the lake had become in recent years.