(OTTAWA) June 29, 2016 – Elizabeth May, Leader of the Green Party of Canada (MP, Saanich-Gulf Islands), issued the following statement following the announcement of the North American Climate, Clean Energy, and Environment Partnership:
“I’m pleased to see climate as a priority at the North American Leaders’ Summitt, and it’s encouraging to see the commitment by all three leaders to 50% clean power generation by 2025,” Ms. May said. “It’s also encouraging that Mexico has signed on to existing commitments between Canada and the United States to cut methane emissions from oil and gas by 40-45% by 2025.”
“While I’m pleased the North American leaders have committed to ratify the Paris Accord by next year, it’s disappointing that the leaders have left existing greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets in place.
“It’s clear that our existing targets utterly fail to meet the Paris Accord targets. That global agreement rests on ratcheting up our current targets, of which Canada’s are the weakest amongst G7 nations.
“It is notable that the commitments at this summit are aligned to 2025 as the deadline year, as are the U.S. commitments. Canada’s GHG reduction target for 2030 is out of step with the U.S. and with the pledges in today’s announcement. It is long since time that the Trudeau administration replace the old Harper target.”