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While Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he wants Canada to lead the world in reducing industrial greenhouse gas emissions linked to climate change, the country that led the world in doing it last year was President Donald Trump’s United States.

In a report this month from the authoritative, Paris-based, International Energy Agency: “The United States saw the largest decline in energy-related CO2 (carbon dioxide) emissions in 2019 on a country basis — a fall of 140 Mt (megatonnes) or 2.9%, to 4.8 Gt (gigatonnes). US emissions are now down almost 1 Gt from their peak in 2000, the largest absolute decline by any country over that period.”

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This dramatic drop in US emissions was a significant factor in flattening global emissions at 33 Gt in 2019 after two years of increases, and despite the global economy growing by 2.9%, including increased emissions in China and India.

“We now need to work hard to make sure that 2019 is remembered as a definitive peak in global emissions, not just another pause in growth,” said Fatih Birol, the IEA’s executive director. “We have the energy technologies to do this, and we have to make use of them all.”