Adrian Wyld/CP Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaks during a joint news conference at the Council of the European Union in Brussels, Belgium on Oct. 30, 2016.

OTTAWA — The European Union and Germany say they appreciate the “continuity” in Canadian climate change policy that will result from the federal election result. The Liberals won a minority mandate in Monday’s vote after a campaign that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau framed as a fight over protecting the planet from the existential threat of climate change. Trudeau portrayed his Conservative opponent Andrew Scheer as a climate change laggard, a charge Scheer answered as amounting to hypocrisy because the Liberals still hadn’t met their greenhouse-gas reduction targets. Diplomats from the EU and Germany were careful not to wade into the partisan fight that unfolded on the Canadian campaign trail. Watch: Trudeau says Liberals will plant two billion trees to combat climate change

“The outcome of the Canadian elections gives us the continuity of the work we’ve done, and we see that that work will continue. So therefore, the keyword for us is continuity,” Peteris Ustubs, the EU envoy to Canada, said in an interview. Ustubs said incoming European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen has highlighted the new “European green deal” as a top priority when she takes over her post later this fall from Jean-Claude Juncker. Climate policy “will be one of the key points where we will have dialogue and discussions with Canada,” said Ustubs. “You will see strong initiatives in the first 100 days, specifically linked with the agenda of climate change.” Von der Leyen, a former German defence minister, received the full backing of German Chancellor Angela Merkel for the new EU post. German Ambassador Sabine Sparwasser said her country has worked closely with Canada on climate protection and looks forward to that continuing.