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RESOLUTION ON ENERGY AND CLIMATE CHANGE

The members of the Massachusetts-Québec Cooperation Conference met in

Québec City from September 19 to 21, 2015, and concluded their working

sessions by adopting the following resolution:

AS both Québec and Massachusetts are greatly concerned by the environmental impacts of energy-

related activities;

AS Québec’s and Massachusetts’ action plans target GHG emissions reductions of 20% and 25%,

respectively, below 1990 levels by the year 2020;

AS the government of Québec 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 Québec’s and Massachusetts’ hydrocarbons are supplied by other states, provinces and foreign

sources;

AS Québec’s and Massachusetts’ modes of transportation use fossil fuels almost exclusively;

AS Massachusetts is a net importer of electricity, and Québec is a net exporter of electricity;

AS electricity rates (residential, commercial, institutional and industrial) are much higher in

Massachusetts than in Québec;

AS 97% of Québec’s electrical generating facilities operate on renewable energy;

IT IS RESOLVED THAT the Massachusetts-Québec 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 Québec 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 Québec and Massachusetts will examine the possibility and feasibility

of incorporating Québec’s hydroelectricity into the Massachusetts energy portfolio for the purpose

of reducing the release of GHG and other atmospheric pollutants;

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IT IS RESOLVED THAT Québec and Massachusetts will continue to explore current and future

Québec-US interconnection projects likely to help increase the electricity supply, thereby reducing

fossil fuel consumption;

IT IS RESOLVED THAT Québec 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-Québec Cooperation Conference in Québec

City, September 20, 2015