The leaders of the Canada, Mexico, and the United States unveiled a sweeping plan to reduce carbon emissions during this year’s trilateral North American Leaders' Summit, held today in Ottawa, Canada. The leaders issued an ambitious goal to generate half of North America’s energy from renewable sources in the next decade.
In a joint statement, U.S. President Barack Obama, Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau pledged to bring 50% of North America’s energy production over to "clean power generation", which includes renewable sources by 2025. The plan also calls for government operations to run entirely on clean energy sources in the same amount of time.
The plan calls half of North America's energy to come from renewable sources
To reach this goal, the three heads of state announced that they would be putting a series of initiatives into place that would tighten energy efficiency standard in the next three years, new research to explore the deployment of renewable energy on a continental scale, and the reduction of fossil fuel subsidies to help reduce carbon emissions.
Presently, North America draws 37% of its power from renewable sources. The White House rolled out the plan emphasizing the economic benefits of reducing carbon emissions, citing job growth and the economic consequences of climate change.
The summit comes a day after Mexican and Canadian leaders met for their own bilateral talks, where they pledged to strengthen their own economic ties, which also addressed energy production.