Climate fight will not stall because certain countries drop out, China says

BRUSSELS, June 22 (Reuters) – Global cooperation to tackle climate change will not stall because of the absence of certain countries, China’s environment minister told a meeting of governments on Monday, as nations prepare for another U.N. climate summit without the U.S.

“The multilateral process will not stop or even slow down because of the absence of individual countries,” Chinese environment minister Huang Runqiu told the meeting to discuss action to address climate change.

The meeting was co-hosted in Brussels by China, the European Union and Canada and attended by others including Japan, Australia and South Africa.

U.S. President Donald Trump withdrew the world’s biggest economy from the Paris Agreement, the world’s main climate change treaty, in January.

It was the second time the U.S. has quit the Paris accord, after Trump did so in 2017, during his first term in office. So far, no other country has followed the U.S. lead and left the treaty.

(Reporting by Kate Abnett, Hugo Lhomedet; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne)