RESOLUTION ON ENERGY AND CLIMATE CHANGE

The members of the Massachusetts-Qubec Cooperation Conference met in

Qubec City from September 19 to 21, 2015, and concluded their working
sessions by adopting the following resolution:

AS both Qubec and Massachusetts are greatly concerned by the environmental impacts of energyrelated activities;
AS Qubecs and Massachusetts action plans target GHG emissions reductions of 20% and 25%,
respectively, below 1990 levels by the year 2020;
AS the government of Qubec intends to announce its plans for a new GHG emissions target of
37.5 % under the 1990 threshold by 2030 before the 21st Session of the Conference of the Parties
(COP) on Climate Change that will be held in Paris in December 2015;
AS Massachusetts has a statutory, legally binding economy-wide GHG reduction requirement of
80% below 1990 levels by the year 2050;
AS Qubecs and Massachusetts hydrocarbons are supplied by other states, provinces and foreign
sources;
AS Qubecs and Massachusetts modes of transportation use fossil fuels almost exclusively;
AS Massachusetts is a net importer of electricity, and Qubec is a net exporter of electricity;
AS electricity rates (residential, commercial, institutional and industrial) are much higher in
Massachusetts than in Qubec;
AS 97% of Qubecs electrical generating facilities operate on renewable energy;
IT IS RESOLVED THAT the Massachusetts-Qubec Cooperation Conference will study
strategies, policies and measures to reduce GHG emissions, increase reliability and reduce cost,
through methods including but not limited to renewable energy production and transmission,
conservation and energy efficiency;
IT IS RESOLVED THAT Qubec and Massachusetts will explore opportunities arising from the
use of GHG emissions trading as a possible tool in the fight against global warming;
IT IS RESOLVED THAT Qubec and Massachusetts will examine the possibility and feasibility
of incorporating Qubecs hydroelectricity into the Massachusetts energy portfolio for the purpose
of reducing the release of GHG and other atmospheric pollutants;

IT IS RESOLVED THAT Qubec and Massachusetts will continue to explore current and future
Qubec-US interconnection projects likely to help increase the electricity supply, thereby reducing
fossil fuel consumption;
IT IS RESOLVED THAT Qubec and Massachusetts will collaborate to develop strategies to
significantly reduce their road transportation-related GHG emissions through the development of
methods such as the exploration and development of clean fuel standards and the research and
development of replacement transportation fuels such as ethanol, hydrogen, electric generation and
storage, and efficiency;
FINALLY, IT IS RESOLVED THAT Quebec and Massachusetts will support and encourage the
research and development, by their respective institutions for higher learning, of technologies,
methods and strategies regarding the reduction of GHG, energy production and storage, energy
conservation, transmission and reliability, and will encourage and support the exchange of
information and technology resulting from those efforts.

Adopted at the first session of the Massachusetts-Qubec Cooperation Conference in Qubec

City, September 20, 2015