Carlo Dade is the director of the Trade and Investment Centre at the Canada West Foundation. There are more questions than answers in the federal government’s developing Indo-Pacific strategy, which is designed to help Canada navigate a world where China is a dominant economic force. For Canadian businesses, the most puzzling question is probably why Ottawa is not aggressively pursuing the country’s only real competitive advantage in the region: the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership. The CPTTP is one of the very few areas where Canadian businesses are on par with its competitors in the Pacific Rim and ahead of U.S. companies that want but cannot have a real trade agreement in the region, as dysfunctional domestic politics prevent Congress from approving one. With enforceable rules, tariff cuts, dispute settlement and provisions to move skilled labour, plus 11 economies in the region and another eight queueing up to join, the CPTPP is the definition of competitive advantage. If expanded, the agreement could see, at a minimum, an additional $52-billion a year of Canadian trade protected by its stronger rules.
India’s economy will become carbon neutral by the year 2070, the country’s prime minster has announced at the COP26 climate crisis summit in Glasgow. The target date is two decades beyond what scientists say is needed to avert catastrophic climate impacts. India is the last of the world’s major carbon polluters to announce a net-zero target, with China saying it would reach that goal in 2060, and the United States and the European Union aiming for 2050.
China's carbon emissions are vast and growing, dwarfing those of other countries. Experts agree that without big reductions in China's emissions, the world cannot win the fight against climate change. In 2020, China's President Xi Jinping said his country would aim for its emissions to reach their highest point before 2030 and for carbon neutrality before 2060. His statement has now been confirmed as China's official position ahead of the COP26 global climate summit in Glasgow. But China has not said exactly how these goals will be achieved.
China's carbon emissions are vast and growing, dwarfing those of other countries. Experts agree that without big reductions in China's emissions, the world cannot win the fight against climate change. In 2020, China's President Xi Jinping said his country would aim for its emissions to reach their highest point before 2030 and for carbon neutrality before 2060. His statement has now been confirmed as China's official position ahead of the COP26 global climate summit in Glasgow. But China has not said exactly how these goals will be achieved.
A crucial U.N. conference heard calls on its first day for the world's major economies to keep their promises of financial help to address the climate crisis, while big polluters India and Brazil made new commitments to cut emissions. World leaders, environmental experts and activists all pleaded for decisive action to halt the global warming which threatens the future of the planet at the start of the two-week COP26 summit in the Scottish city of Glasgow on Monday. The task facing negotiators was made even more daunting by the failure of the Group of 20 major industrial nations to agree ambitious new commitments at the weekend.