The U.S. and Canada are joining forces to address climate change and reach net zero emissions by 2050, President Joe Biden and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced at a virtual bilaterial meeting.
The two leaders unveiled "The U.S.-Canada Partnership Roadmap," outlining how they plan to collaborate to address combating the pandemic, national security issues, climate and the economy.
On climate change, Mr. Biden said during the virtual event that they will "work in lockstep to display the seriousness of our commitment at both home and abroad."
"Now that the United States is back in the Paris Agreement, we intend to demonstrate our leadership in order to spur other countries to raise their own ambitions," he said at the meeting Tuesday.
The roadmap calls for accelerating efforts to combat climate change, including a high-level climate ministerial to align policies and goals and to increase the scale and speed of action toward the goal of net-zero emissions by 2050. The ministerial will also explore ways to align policies while creating jobs, tackling inequality and enhancing resilience to climate impacts.
"The president also restated his commitment to holding polluters accountable for their actions," the White House said, with both leaders pledging to fight unfair trade by countries failing to take strong climate action.
They will also coordinate on promoting clean energy infrastructure and encouraging cross-border clean electricity transmission. The U.S. goal is to achieve a net-zero carbon pollution-free power sector by 2035, while Canada hopes to achieve 90% non-emitting electricity generation by 2030.
Both leaders committed to work with public and private financial institutions in their countries to advance climate-related financial risk disclosure and align financial flows with climate goals.
The U.S. is hosting the Leaders' Climate Summit on April 22, and Mr. Biden reiterated the goal of having a nationally determined contribution goal by then, the White House said, adding that Mr. Trudeau also intends to announce Canada's enhanced 2030 emissions target by then.
