Canadian environment minister Catherine McKenna tells U.S. EPA head Canada will not change terms to bring U.S. on board

OTTAWA – Environment Minister Catherine McKenna says Canada has no interest in renegotiating the Paris climate change agreement in order to bring the United States back on board.

She says she made that clear to Scott Pruitt, administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, during a private meeting on the sidelines of a meeting of G7 environment ministers in Italy on Sunday.

It was their first meeting since President Donald Trump announced his intention to pull the U.S. out of the global agreement, which sets a course to try and keep the increase in global temperatures to below two degrees above pre-industrial times.

All environment ministers but Pruitt agreed at the Italian meeting that Paris is irreversible, continuing the isolation of the world’s biggest economy and second-biggest emitter.

Pruitt only attended the meeting for a couple of hours, McKenna says and his officials who remained behind didn’t say much during the remainder of the negotiations.

McKenna also said Canada remains committed to keeping up the pressure at the upcoming G20 leaders meeting in Germany, denying a German report that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau tried to convince Chancellor Angela Merkel not to insist on mentioning the Paris accord in the G20 communique.