Climate change and the economy no longer can be seen as separate issues, and the idea that one cannot be achieved without sacrificing the other “no longer makes sense,” Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Friday in wrapping up his state visit to the United States.
The “continental approach” to climate change that he and President Obama took Thursday “will go a long way to really setting the groundwork for the understanding that most people have … that you can no longer make a choice between what’s good for the environment and what’s good for the economy. They go together,” Trudeau said while addressing American University students in Washington.
President Obama and the prime minister announced a joint push to enact landmark regulations on the oil and gas sector to cut the greenhouse gas methane, while moving to harmonize emissions and fuel-efficiency standards for big-rig trucks and commercial airplanes. The countries also will work together to protect the Arctic from the effects of climate change, including enforcing emission limits on shippers that use the icy north as a transit point for global trade.
The oil and gas industry and its supporters came out in opposition to the plan Thursday, saying the proposed methane rules are duplicative and would raise the cost of producing shale oil and natural gas in the U.S., upping energy prices for consumers and making the nation less competitive globally. Methane is a short-lived but potent greenhouse gas. Many scientists blame the emissions for raising the Earth’s temperature, resulting in more severe weather, droughts and flooding.
Trudeau said the “kind of future we need” will be quite different from a fossil fuel-based one. “It’s going to have clean jobs and energy efficiency and renewable resources, renewable energy sources,” he said. “And that idea of giving up on economic progress so we can protect the environment no longer makes sense.
“The only way we are going to build a strong, sustainable economy is by cherishing the eco-system resources and the natural renewable resources that underpin everything else that we do as human activity.”
Most of the goals build on the commitments made by 196 nations in December in reaching a deal on climate change, he said. The Paris accord, which Obama and Trudeau pledged Thursday they will sign in April, sends the right message to business “that this is the way the world is going,” he said.
“Now it’s a race to see who can get there successfully fastest, and make the most benefit from it,” Trudeau said. “Climate change is a very real challenge, it’s also an incredible opportunity to rethink how we function and innovate around how we succeed.”
