United States President Joe Biden says that he and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau have agreed to work towards achieving net-zero emissions by 2050.
“We’re launching a high-level, climate-ambition ministerial and to align our policies and our goals to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050,” Biden said in a speech on Tuesday following a bilateral meeting with the Canadian leader.
US Special Climate Change Envoy John Kerry and his Canadian counterpart, Environment Minister Jonathan Wilkinson, will host the ministerial effort.
The partnership comes after Biden revoked a key permit for the Keystone XL pipeline, which would have transported 830,000 barrels a day of carbon-intensive heavy crude from Canada’s Alberta to Nebraska in the US, on his first day in office last month – one amid a flurry of executive orders aimed at curbing climate change.
A US official said the North American neighbours will “cooperate on policy alignment” and aim to announce new emission reduction targets under the Paris climate agreement for the year 2030 by April 22 – the day that the US will host a climate leaders summit.
The official told reporters that areas of policy alignment “of mutual interest” would include reducing methane in oil and gas operations, transport and vehicles and climate change resilience.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told the Reuters news agency earlier this month that the US is interested in boosting imports of hydroelectric power. In a separate interview, Environment Minister Wilkinson said combining Canada’s clean energy with US wind, solar and geothermal power was a priority for early talks between the two countries.
Aljazeera
