Canada on track to meet, exceed methane emission reduction goal by 2030, Trudeau tells UN

Canada is on track to hit and even surpass targets for reducing oilpatch methane emissions, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Wednesday, as the UN sought to hold leaders to account for their climate commitments.

Canada is on track to hit and even surpass targets for reducing oilpatch methane emissions, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Wednesday, as the UN sought to hold leaders to account for their climate commitments.

Draft regulations that are due before the end of the year will allow Canada to meet or even exceed its goal of slashing methane from the oil and gas sector by 75 per cent from 2012 levels by 2030.

Trudeau was speaking at the Climate Ambition Summit, a gathering of some 30 countries on the margins of the UN General Assembly aimed at calling them to account for their actions, or lack thereof.

The UN moderator introduced the prime minister with a pointed reminder that Canada "was one the largest expanders" of fossil fuel production last year, a detail Trudeau acknowledged only obliquely -- and with a hint of domestic politics thrown in.

"In 2015, Canada -- a major oil and gas supplier -- was far behind on climate action," he acknowledged, without saying out loud that 2015 was the year his Liberals took office.

"With hard work, we've been able to change that. Canada's emissions are, in fact, trending down."

A hint of partisanship also showed up when Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault emerged from the towering UN headquarters standing sentry along the East River to backstop his boss.