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On Thursday, February 19, Barack Obama made his first trip abroad since becoming president. The short trip to Canada featured talks with Prime Minister Stephen Harper on issues both countries face, including economic downturn, energy consumption, and a need to confront climate change.
The primary topics of concern related to the economy, specifically building jobs and dealing with "trade sensitivities." Still, energy issues and environmental concerns occupied a prominent second place, earning the meeting the title of a "Clean-Energy Dialogue."
Stephen Harper announced that he was "quite optimistic that we now have a partner on the North American continent that will provide leadership to the world on the climate-change issue, and I think that's an important development." He went on to explain how the two countries were establishing a dialogue that would commit "senior officials from both countries to collaborate on the development of clean-energy science and technologies that will reduce greenhouse gases and combat climate change."
President Barack Obama commented that the "dialogue will move us in the right direction," and added that "increasingly, we have to take into account that the issue of climate change, greenhouse gases, is something that's going to have an impact on all of us."
Both countries face significant challenges in curbing their own energy use and carbon emissions and may be able to make headway working in parallel, with close communication. Still, there was a reluctance to give specific plans for how the problem would be addressed, other than an agreement that a cap and trade deal was not the answer at this time. Hopefully, future discussions will help a more concrete plan develop.
For more environmental news, check out February 21, 2009: China Climate Talks and Obama in Canada.
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