President Barack Obama and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau Thursday committed their countries to increase cooperation on climate and energy activities. Under the U.S.-Canada Joint Statement on Climate, Energy, and Arctic Leadership, “the leaders reaffirm their commitment to working together to strengthen North American energy security, phase out fossil fuel subsidies, accelerate clean energy development to address climate change, and to foster sustainable energy development and economic growth,” the statement says.
Much of the new agreement revolves around methane and hydrofluorocarbons with both countries committing to implementing federal measures to reduce emissions while improving research and development and knowledge sharing.
Also included in the statement is a nod to more traditional clean energy activities, many of which the countries have been working together on for several years. The nations are both members of Mission Innovation, an effort announced at the Paris climate negotiations under which 20 countries pledged to double clean energy research and development.
In Thursday’s announcement, Obama and Trudeau vowed to “leverage participation in Mission Innovation, and strengthen collaboration on clean energy research and development for: reducing methane emissions; improving electrical grids; accelerating electric vehicle development and integration; unconventional oil and gas; carbon capture, use and storage; and, new cutting-edge technologies.”
Canada is home to the world’s first operating commercial-scale post-combustion CCS project on an existing coal-fired power plant, located in Saskatchewan, on Unit 3 of SaskPower’s Boundary Dam power plant. The U.S. is soon to be home to the world’s first commercial scale new-build CCS project on a coal-fired power plant at the Southern Company’s Kemper County Energy Facility in Mississippi, which is tentatively scheduled to reach full operation later this year.
