Minister Wilkinson Strengthens Energy and Resource Partnerships With the United States
Washington: Canada and the United States share a common vision of a prosperous and sustainable North American economy. Our integrated energy systems and natural resource markets produce billions in cross-border trade and support hundreds of thousands of jobs on both sides of the border.
Russia’s unprovoked and unjustifiable invasion of Ukraine and subsequent sanctions on energy and related products have fundamentally altered the global energy landscape. Canada condemns recent efforts by Russia to use energy as a tool of influence and coercion. We are working closely with our international partners, while reinforcing our shared climate goals, to maintain the stability of global energy markets and to secure energy supply chains.
This week, the Honourable Jonathan Wilkinson, Minister of Natural Resources, was in Washington, DC, to meet with U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm, members of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, senior White House officials from the National Economic Council and business leaders to advance global and North American energy security and to discuss shared opportunities to accelerate climate action and the transition to net-zero emissions.
Combating the climate crisis and addressing energy security requires ambition. Minister Wilkinson spoke with key U.S. officials about ways to strengthen collaboration on critical minerals, clean hydrogen, nuclear technologies, carbon removal and achieving a clean North American electricity grid. Specific actions that will be taken in the next year include:
● Strengthening the Canada-US Critical Minerals Action Plan. With recent commitments to invest in critical minerals under Canada’s Budget 2022 and the U.S. Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, both countries are well situated to collaborate on continental critical mineral strategies. The sustainable development of critical minerals is essential to our clean energy deployment commitments and the long-term energy security of North America and our allies around the world.
● Identifying key locations for cross-border hydrogen hubs and corridors, and developing standards for the carbon intensity of clean hydrogen essential to enabling global trade. Both governments have identified hydrogen as essential for contributing to 2030 climate objectives and the path to net zero by 2050. Canadian and U.S. governments, sub-national governments and the private sector are ready to take action and make investments to unlock the significant economic opportunities that hydrogen presents.
● Accelerating the implementation of the Memorandum of Understanding that was signed between the U.S. Department of Energy and Natural Resources Canada concerning cooperation on energy, which includes our commitments to achieve a net-zero emissions electricity grid by 2035; aims to support carbon removal technology development and deployment; targets cooperation on responsibly managed nuclear power opportunities; and emphasizes the importance of affordable energy, particularly for disadvantaged, remote and Indigenous communities.
This work builds on the Roadmap for a Renewed U.S.-Canada Partnership adopted by President Biden and Prime Minister Trudeau in February of 2021.
In addition to joint Canada-U.S. priorities, Minister Wilkinson and Secretary Granholm also discussed global energy issues as our countries prepare for the upcoming meeting of G7 Energy Ministers, in Berlin.