I live in Beijing now. Beijing is well known around the world for its bad air. The people who live there notice that. Now, to be fair to Beijing, I've been there five weeks and the air has been great. The skies have been blue and the weather has been wonderful. I'm sure that won't always be the case.
Certainly, China has signed onto the Paris agreement. As a country, China has committed to do its bit for global warming. As I said, it's the biggest emitter of CO2 and by far the biggest spender on clean energy. On both counts, China's in there. This is something that I remember Prime Minister Harper always saying, “How can we engage on global warming without China?” I agree with Mr. Harper on that. This is an area in which we must engage with China.
I've also said that just about every minister I've spoken to who has engaged with China is keen. Right at the top of the list for keenness—I'm not saying they're alone, but they're among the leaders for enthusiasm—would be our environment minister and our natural resources minister. The natural resources minister, Jim Carr, is going to China in June. He's going to have meetings on wood and other things. Minister McKenna will be there in December, I think, having had a very proactive visit last year. We are heavily engaged on the environmental-clean tech side of it. Both ministers, one in June and one in December, will be actively engaging China. I think this is one area in which China and Canada are like-minded.
I also think it provides opportunities, including economic opportunities for some of our companies in the clean-tech field and for research between China and our Canadian universities in carbon capture and storage, and also for action in that area. I think that is one of the big areas where more co-operation could bear fruit.