WASHINGTON: The US and Canada have agreed on joint steps to fight climate change, including cutting methane emissions from the oil and gas industry and signing the Paris climate deal “as soon as feasible,” the White House said on Thursday.

The agreement comes ahead of an Oval Office meeting between Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and President Barack Obama at the White House.

The two countries are seeking to improve cooperation on energy after Obama last year rejected the Keystone XL crude oil pipeline project, which was aimed at bringing heavy Canadian oil to US and was promoted by Trudeau’s predecessor, Stephen Harper. The countries committed to cutting emissions of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, by 40 to 45 percent below 2012 levels by 2025, to take steps to fight climate change in the Arctic, and to speed development of green technologies.

Under the agreement, the US Environmental Protection Agency will begin developing regulations for methane emissions from existing oil and gas sources immediately and “will move as expeditiously as possible to complete this process.”