US, Canada, Mexico to commit to 50% clean power

The leaders of the United States, Canada and Mexico will meet on Wednesday at the ‘Three Amigos’ summit in Ottawa and are set to commit to a new regional clean power goal.

Barack Obama, Justin Trudeau and Enrique Peña Nieto will attend the summit in the Canadian capital.

Currently 37% of collective power for the three countries comes from clean energy.

US, Canada and Mexico will have to produce 50% of their power from hydropower, wind, solar and nuclear plants, carbon capture and storage, as well as from energy efficiency measures by 2025.

Brian Deese, a senior adviser to Obama said: “We believe this is an aggressive goal, but for all three countries, one that we believe is achievable, continent-wide.”

It is a significant challenge especially for the US, which produces about 75% of the countries’ power.

Obama had already tried to implement new regulations on coal-fired power plants with his clean power plan, but it has been put on hold by the US Supreme Court at the beginning of the year.

One third of the US power currently comes from clean energy sources, and less than 20% for Mexico, while according to the Canadian Broadcasting Corp, Canada produces 81% of its electricity from hydroelectric, solar, wind and nuclear power generation.

According to Deese, the three leaders will also announce during the summit new agreements to make it easier and cheaper totrade and transmit renewable energy between countries.

Deese also says that Mexico will commit to a previous agreement between Obama and Truday ealier this year to reduce methane emissions by 40-45 per cent by 2015.