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Recent media coverage in advance of the G20 summit in Hamburg has set the stage for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to press for climate action. In comparing Trudeau’s support for the Paris Agreement to the Trump administration’s “exit” from the Paris Agreement, it is possible to associate the word “leadership” with Canada’s climate policies.

However, it is only in comparison with Trump that our policies look at all progressive. In fact, Trudeau will need to commit to far more than anything currently planned domestically for Canada to hold its head high in the company of the European nations, or even China.

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French President Emmanuel Macron has taken Trump on most directly with an English-language social media campaign: “Make our Planet Great Again.” Macron heads to Hamburg calling for much more aggressive climate action from all G20 nations.

G20 host and German Chancellor Angela Merkel is committed to pressing Trump, and isolating him, if need be. German media sources maintain that Trudeau advised to take Paris Agreement references out of the G20 declaration. Trudeau has categorically denied this. I was enormously relieved to hear the prime minister commit to pushing for strong language in support of the Paris Agreement in the final G20 communiqué.