President Barack Obama and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced steps to limit methane emissions from existing oil and gas wells, moving meant to underscore their commitment to combat climate change.
Read the U.S.-Canada Joint Statement on Climate, Energy, and Arctic Leadership
Canada and also the U.S. are receiving reduce methane emissions from oil and gas up to 45 percent below 2012 amounts by 2025, based on some pot statement by the countries issued Thursday, as Trudeau meets Obama in Washington.
Oil and gas companies, whose profits are suffering because of a stop by prices, will probably seek to derail the program.
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Both Trudeau and Obama have described climate change as among the world’s most pressing challenges. The announcement underscores the extent to which an outgoing president and an incoming prime minister who’re ideologically aligned are eager to address regions of mutual interest.
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The two leaders are also expected to talk over more prickly issues, including security-induced traffic jams in the U.S.- Canadian border and Canada’s halting participation in the bombing campaign against Islamic State. Trudeau is going to be treated to a state dinner, the first for any Canadian pm since 1997.
Obama sees himself within the younger Trudeau, 44, whose ascent in Canadian politics was built on pledges of hope and change and an inclusive vision of his country, and whose youngsters are roughly the same age as Obama’s as he was elected in 2008. Trudeau told Bloomberg News within an interview earlier this month that he shares “a great compatibility right now with regards to the issues we’re looking at” with Obama.
Methane Rules
The U.S. Epa within the coming month intends to release draft requirements to compel energy companies to supply details about the emissions produced along a number of oil and gas activities, including production, transmission, processing and storage, according to the person acquainted with the program.
The EPA is already finishing a rule that will require gas and oil companies to upgrade equipment and check out methane leaks at new and modified wells. Thursday’s announcement the federal government will also look at existing equipment may assuage concerns from environmentalists who say cutting leaks at new wells isn’t enough to satisfy Obama’s carbon-cutting pledges.
If the EPA is unable to complete focus on its methane regulation prior to the end from the Obama presidency, a Republican successor likely would withdraw the rule.
The government in Canada’s Alberta province is considering stricter methane rules for new equipment, though they likely won’t be as prescriptive as U.S. regulations, based on Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Bernard Chen.
The planned U.S.-Canada methane announcement was reported earlier by the Wall Street Journal.
About 25 per cent of global warming is related to methane emissions, said Mark Brownstein, vice president within the Climate and Program at the Environmental Defense Fund. Methane is 25 to 34 times as potent as carbon dioxide at warming the climate on the century.
“There’s hardly anything else that may have that kind of dramatic effect on the rate of warming today in such a technologically feasible and cost-effective way as reducing oil and gas methane emissions,” Brownstein said. “The chance here is enormous, also it talks to the significance of what both Canada and also the United States are committed to.”
Arctic Management
Conservationists are also watching for Obama and Trudeau to go over management of the Arctic, including energy development and shipping in the region. That may include a crackdown on sooty black carbon, which darkens ice and hastens melting at the top of the world. One option might be limits on sulfur content in ship fuel north of the Arctic Circle.
Trudeau is bringing with him to Washington his fisheries minister, Hunter Tootoo, an aboriginal Canadian who represents the district of Nunavut, a thinly populated and developed northern territory.
“Being an Inuk, I’m keenly conscious of the problems in the North,” he said in an interview. “We’re around the front lines of global warming and we’re feeling the impacts of it already.”
Canada’s contributions to the combat the Islamic State militant group have caused some heartburn for that White House. Trudeau withdrew Canada’s six fighter jets in the coalition bombing Islamic State in February, while increasing the number of Canadian troops assisting to train Iraqi forces fighting the group.
Trade is yet another difficult problem for Obama and Trudeau. The Canadian leader remains noncommittal on the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a free-trade deal between the U.S. and 11 other Asia-Pacific countries, including Canada, that Obama views as a cornerstone of his legacy.
The pact was hammered in the middle of Canada’s election. Canada meanwhile wishes to enact its very own free trade agreement with Europe after revising it to avoid fears that corporations could be over-empowered, an issue which has stalled trade negotiations between your U.S. and the European Union.
Bloomberg.com
U.S.-canada Joint Statement on Climate, Energy, And Arctic Leadership
