You raise an important issue, and that's the subject of coal emissions, which you and I have spoken about often before. I know you are passionate about this subject.
I think it's important contextually to start by noting that 41% of the carbon in our atmosphere today came from burning coal. Coal is the greatest source of carbon emissions and the buildup of greenhouse gases. The importance of carbon capture and storage—as I said earlier, and not to reiterate—is that the world continues to burn coal. Canada doesn't, on a relative basis—and I'll come to this—but the rest of the world does. Over 2,000 plants are slated to be constructed in the next 25 years, all of them emitting carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. The only technology we know of to abate those emissions is carbon capture and storage.
I'm proud as a Canadian that between the $1 billion in the fund that you refer to, set up by the Government of Canada, close to $2 billion set aside by the Government of Alberta, and another $1 billion set aside by the Government of Saskatchewan, we're actually leading the world in terms of investments to try to find a technology that works to reduce those emissions.
Canada burns very little coal; 73% of our electricity system emits no carbon at all. We have only 21 coal-burning facilities in this country. By contrast, the United States has over 650 coal-burning thermal plants at work today. Our plan, as Michael Martin said before Copenhagen, is to deal with those in a regulatory manner.