U.S. President Barack Obama (R) and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau hold a joint press conference in the Rose Garden of the White House. Kevin Lamarque/Reuters

North America pledges to deliver 50 percent zero-carbon energy in less than a decade

By Katie Herzogon Jun 28, 2016Share

Climate change will be front and center at the North American Leaders’ Summit this week in Ottawa, the annual meeting between the prime minister of Canada and the presidents of Mexico and the U.S.

In addition to President Obama’s address on climate change, the leaders of the three nations will announce that Mexico will be joining an agreement between the United States and Canada to regulate methane leaks. They will also pledge to generate half of the continent’s electricity from clean energy sources by 2025. The target, up from 37 percent today, will require increasing include wind, solar, hydropower, nuclear energy, and carbon capture technology, according to the New York Times.

Environmentalists, however, are mixed on both nuclear energy and carbon capture technology, which doesn’t exist in any scalable way right now. There are only eight carbon-capture projects currently operating in the world, including a handful in the U.S and one massively expensive “clean coal” plant in Canada.

Still, the announcement coming Wednesday isn’t nothing. “This agreement means the United States will dramatically increase the amount of clean, renewable energy we get from sources like wind and solar within the next decade,” said Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune.

Here’s hoping.

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North America pledges to deliver 50 percent zero-carbon energy in less than a decade