Canada and the United States Embark on New Era of Cleaner Air

Washington, December 7, 2000 - An historic agreement to significantly reduce smog-causing pollutants and bring cleaner air to millions of Canadians and Americans was brought into force today by the governments of Canada and the United States.

The agreement, entitled the Ozone Annex to the 1991 Canada-United States Air Quality Agreement was signed by David Anderson, Canada's Minister of the Environment, and Frank Loy, U.S. Under-Secretary of State for Global Affairs at the Canadian Embassy in Washington. It commits both governments to significantly reduce the creation of smog causing pollutants - nitrogen oxides (NO_x) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) - in Ontario and Quebec in Canada and the northeastern and mid-western United States. This agreement will also provide significant benefits to Atlantic Canada.

"This agreement marks another major milestone for clean air. Canada and the United States broke new ground with the acid rain agreement of the 1980's and today's agreement takes us further in protecting our citizens from the health effects of dirty air," said Minister Anderson. "We will be able to reduce hospital admissions and deaths from air pollution on both sides of the border."

The agreement is part of a larger and multi-faceted program for air quality improvement in both countries. In the United States, commitments will be met through a NO_x emission reduction program which will reduce summertime NO_x emissions in the U.S. transboundary region by 43 percent by 2010. This will mean that emissions from power plants in the summertime will be reduced by more than 70 percent. Further reductions in NO_x and VOCs will come from existing U.S. vehicle and fuel quality rules and standards for other sources of volatile organic compounds such as consumer and commercial products.

"Smog knows no borders. Canada and the U.S. have worked together to achieve the Ozone Annex and reduce smog in cities on both sides of the border," said Minister of Foreign Affairs, John Manley. "Bilateral and international negotiations to improve our global environment may be difficult, but they do bring results. This achievement gives us hope that we can reach other agreements to tackle our global environmental problems."

In Canada, new regulatory standards for vehicles and fuels, aligned with those in the United States, will be put in place as part of a broader Clean Air Agenda. Part of delivering cleaner air for Canadians is the implementation of Canada-Wide Standards for reduction of ground level ozone with provinces and territories. An important contribution to meeting the new Canada-Wide Standard for Ozone will be the year-round caps of 39 kilotons for NO_x emissions from fossil-fuel power plants in southern Ontario and five kilotons in southern Quebec. It is estimated that the total NO_x reductions in the Canadian transboundary region will be 44 percent year-round by 2010.

The Ozone agreement builds on an earlier success in reducing Acid Rain under the Canada-United States Air Quality Agreement.

Both Canada and the United States will report once every two years on progress in reaching their targets and will, in 2004, revisit the agreement to see if further reductions are required. Both countries will analyze further options to reduce emissions from significant sources such as transportation, manufacturing and electricity. The goal is to implement cost-effective emission reductions through energy efficiency, renewable energy, cleaner fuel and alternative technology.

Both countries will also examine whether air quality issues along the British Columbia and Washington State border should be jointly addressed under the Ozone Annex.

Related documents:

• Canada-United States Ozone Annex [backgrounder, 2000-12-07]
• Clean Air Website [information collection]