By Colin Isaacs
In October 2024 the Canadian Climate Institute, which bills itself as Canada’s leading climate change policy research organization, and the Net-Zero Advisory Body (NZAB), a group of experts appointed by the Governor in Council on the recommendation of Canada’s Minister of Environment and Climate Change, joined forces to present a day long event with the intriguing title “The Net‑Zero Edge: Navigating the New Realities for Canadian Competitiveness.”
The event brought European and Canadian speakers together to present an overview of the steps to Net-Zero and the opportunities for combining Net-Zero energy objectives with opportunities for maintaining and enhancing profitability. European speakers in particular brought the message that the Europeans Union is moving towards requiring that imported goods be manufactured under in Net-Zero facilities and as part of a Net-Zero supply chain so Canadian producers who wish to export to the European Union should already be preparing to comply with EU’s Net-Zero rules.
The examples brought to the conference were mostly from heavy industrial sectors, steel, aluminum, cement, and electricity, each with a fairly small number of large facilities in Canada. Hence the agenda was somewhat limited in the extent to which it could help the Canadian small and medium business sectors but some of the generic advice shared could still be helpful to small and midsize enterprises (SMEs), which are starting to think about a Net-Zero strategy.
Rick Smith, president of the Canadian Climate Institute, launched the event with the claim that carbon reduction is the single greatest opportunity for economic progress. This is illustrated by the need to convert our continent’s vehicle fleets from fossil fuels to electric power. In this area Canada has to compete with China and the United States. He posed the question of which countries will make these new products. His answer: the countries must include Canada.
Professor Simon Donner, chair of the NZAB, agreed with Smith, stating that Canada is in a sort of race to adoption of low carbon industries. He stated that we have a plan but now need to implement the plan to avoid losing the race..
In his keynote address, Ed Miliband, Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net-Zero for the UK, made it clear that the challengers in the race are not limited to China and the USA. The UK is working hard to make that country a clean energy SuperPower but even so it is open to strengthening its partnership with Canada to take advantage of the greatest economic opportunity of the 21st century.
A similar message was conveyed by the Ambassador of the European Union to Canada, Geneviève Tuts, who announced that the EU has made steady progress towards Net-Zero with half of the energy generated in the EU in the first half of 2024 having come from renewable sources.
Other speakers offered helpful advice:
- Canada needs to stay on the carbon pricing path even though most of the international markets for our products do not yet have carbon pricing schemes.
- In many sectors it is important to be a first mover towards Net-Zero.
- Canadian companies need to be more agile when it comes to making the shift to Net-Zero.
- Some industry sectors need new technology not yet developed.
- Some but not all sectors thought that government incentives are needed to encourage the transition.
- Companies developing new technologies need better protection of patents.
- There is too much political volatility at the moment: industry needs stable government policies and programs before it focuses on Net-Zero strategies.
- Net-Zero strategies should be developed in consultation with outside experts and stakeholders and must be subjected to a third-party audit in order to have credibility.
- Canadians are good at developing new technologies and bringing them to market but once they are in the market we too often let the technologies go to foreign competitors.
Michael Sabia of Hydro Quebec told the meeting that decarbonization is very difficult and we must treat it as such, being realistic and practical, striking a balance in government actions between sticks and carrots. According to Sabia, we suffer from stretched supply chains, slow pace of permitting, duplication of effort between the various levels of government, and the ways in which we deal with ensuring public acceptance of new technologies.
All in all the event provided lots of high level advice but emphasis in a future event needs to be on the how-to for SMEs rather than on high level advice for large corporations and government policy makers.
Video from the day long event is available at https://climateinstitute.ca/events/ and click on The Net-Zero Edge
Colin Isaacs is a chemist with practical experience in administration, municipal council, the Ontario Legislature, a major environmental group, and, for the past three decades, as an adviser to business and government. He is one of the pioneers in promoting the concept of sustainable development for business in Canada and has written extensively on the topic in the popular press and for environment and business platforms.
Featured image credit: Getty Images
