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3 Amigos Summit: Equiterre welcomes clean electricity and climate commitments but North America must stop investments in fossil fuel infrastructure

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Ottawa, June 29th 2016 - Prime Minister Trudeau hosted today U.S. President Barack Obama and Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto for the 2016 North American Leaders Summit and climate change was one of the main agenda item.

The three countries agreed on three specific areas of collaboration: advancing clean and secure power, driving down short-lived climate pollutants and promoting clean and efficient transportation.

Specifically, the three countries committed to a target of 50 per cent of electricity to come from clean power sources by 2025. « This 2025 clean electricity target is ambitious for Mexico and the United States, where currently only a small share of electricity comes from renewable sources. We may see increased opportunities for export of clean electricity like wind and hydro from Canada to the U.S. as a result of this agreement. » stated Steven Guilbeault, Senior Director of Équiterre. « However, given that Canada already gets more than 60 percent of its electricity from renewable sources, this does not constitute a new commitment for Canada. We can and should to do more » added Mr. Guilbeault.

The joint targets to reduce methane and short lived climate pollutants like black carbon and hydrofluorocarbon (HFC), a material used primarily in refrigeration, will make a significant contribution to reducing emissions in the three countries. Mexico now joins a commitment already announced last March by Canada and the U.S. to cut methane emissions by 40 to 45 per cent below 2012 levels by 2025 in the oil and gas sector.

« As one of the most emission-intensive economies in the world, consistency in our approaches at the domestic and international level is critical if Canada is to lead by example and live up to its promise to the international community” added Annie Bérubé, Director of Government relations for Équiterre. “Canada needs an ambitious climate plan to achieve deep GHG emission reductions here at home, to match our international cooperation efforts” added Ms. Bérubé.

« We cannot hope to fight climate change if our countries continue investing in new fossil fuel infrastructure. That is the missing commitment from this Summit » concluded Mr. Guilbeault.

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For more informations :
Dale Robertson
Medias relations, Équiterre
514 605-2000 / drobertson@equiterre.org