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Canada and the U.S. may team up to reduce their CO2 emissions, and develop a plan to ban sales of new gasoline-powered cars and trucks in North America, Canada's Environment Minister Jonathan Wilkinson said this week.
Canada is committed to closer environmental ties with the United States. Wilkinson said that Ottawa and the new administration of President-elect Joe Biden agreed that zero-emission vehicles should be deployed faster, Reuters reported.
Canada should discuss with the U.S. how to achieve this transition and improve the overall performance of the transport sector. The talks should touch upon the policy of European countries, Quebec, and British Columbia, which have already set the dates from which the ban on the sale of vehicles with internal combustion engines will come into effect. “I think we can collectively come up with mechanisms that will help both countries make progress on climate change,” said Wilkinson.
Canada pledges to achieve zero net emissions by 2050. The government promises that it would increase the price of carbon from C$30 a tonne now to C$170 by 2030.
Biden's administration also aims to reduce CO2 emissions by encouraging purchases of electric vehicles. Since his election, U.S. auto companies have stepped up efforts to uphold the emission limits he promised to impose. Biden pledged to go beyond the standards set by President Barack Obama, who called for an annual 4.7% increase in average fuel economy for the car fleet.
California, British Columbia, and Quebec are already demanding that certain cars sold be free of emissions, Wilkinson said, and Ottawa wants to talk to Washington “about whether there is a North American pathway to doing something like that.”
© 2020, Eva Fox. All rights reserved.
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About the Author
Eva Fox
Eva Fox joined Tesmanian in 2019 to cover breaking news as an automotive journalist. The main topics that she covers are clean energy and electric vehicles. As a journalist, Eva is specialized in Tesla and topics related to the work and development of the company.
