The province of Ontario announced March 30 that it plans to join a state-level American alliance intended to work toward reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

"Building partnerships with our U.S. neighbors to address our shared climate change and air pollution issues is in the best interest of Ontarians," Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty said in a news release issued by the provincial Ministry of the Environment.

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger was quoted in the release calling the Ontario announcement "terrific news."

"No state, province, or country can do it alone," Schwarzenegger said, adding that reducing greenhouse gas emissions is a global effort and that such interest from Ontario will serve to inspire other provinces and states to take similar action.

California and the province of Manitoba in December 2006 signed a five-year agreement during which they will examine the possibility of Manitoba participating in carbon-credit trading through the California Climate Action Registry and the California Air Resources Board.

British Columbia Environment Minister Barry Penner in February said that he was interested in collaborating with Western U.S. states on common efforts to control emissions.

McGuinty said Ontario would consider joining the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, or RGGI, a joint effort of eight New England and mid-Atlantic U.S. states to reduce carbon dioxide emission.

"Ontario and New York may be separated by a border but we are united in a common cause to seek solutions to this most pressing challenge," New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer said in the Ontario government news release. "We would enthusiastically welcome Ontario as a partner in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative as we move forward in our fight against global climate change."

Ontario is currently developing its own emissions trading program for nitrogen oxide and sulfur dioxide trading. The provincial government says its efforts in this regard could lead to a possible future cross-border program for other emissions trading.

"A commitment to absolute greenhouse gas reduction targets is fundamental to making progress on this serious global issue," said Ken Ogilvie, executive director of Toronto-based Pollution Probe.

Dale Marshall, an official with the Vancouver, British Columbia-based David Suzuki Foundation, said that Canada "needs a cap-and-trade program based on absolute emission reductions in order to reduce emissions from its industrial sector. In the absence of a national system, it is great to see Ontario considering cap-and-trade systems in the U.S."