The offices of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and President Barak Obama issued a lengthy joint statement March 10 on the occasion of Trudeau’s official visit to Washington. Speaking of “a common vision of a prosperous and sustainable North American economy,” the statement said the two leaders “regard the Paris Agreement as a turning point in global efforts to combat climate change and anchor economic growth in clean development.” Also, “…Canada and the U.S. will continue to respect and promote the rights of Indigenous peoples in all climate change decision making. Furthermore, the leaders emphasize the importance of the U.S. and Canada continuing to cooperate closely with Mexico on climate and energy action and commit to strengthen a comprehensive and enduring North American climate and energy partnership.”
Among other matters, the two leaders committed to completing long-term low greenhouse gas emission development strategies for the middle of the century, to supporting robust implementation of carbon markets, and to exploring options for ensuring the environmental integrity of transferred units and avoiding “double-counting” of emission reductions.
More specifically, the two leaders committed to taking action to reduce methane emissions by 40-45 percent below 2012 levels by 2025 from the oil and gas sector, and to explore new opportunities for additional methane reductions. In particular:
• The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will begin developing regulations for methane emissions from existing oil and gas sources immediately and will move as expeditiously as possible to complete this process. Next month, EPA will start a formal process to require companies operating existing methane emissions sources to provide information to assist in development of comprehensive standards to decrease methane emissions.
• Environment and Climate Change Canada will also regulate methane emissions from new and existing oil and gas sources. Environment and Climate Change Canada will move, as expeditiously as possible, to put in place national regulations in collaboration with provinces/territories, Indigenous Peoples and stakeholders. Environment and Climate Change Canada intends to publish an initial phase of proposed regulations by early 2017.
The two also announced a shared Arctic leadership model: “Conserving Arctic biodiversity through science-based decision making; … Incorporating Indigenous science and traditional knowledge into decision-making. … [A] Science-based approach to oil and gas.”