At COP climate summits, Canada can’t keep setting emission goals only to miss them

Originally posted in the Globe and Mail opinion section on 29 November 2023.

More than 800 Canadians will travel to Dubai this week for the UN Climate Change Conference, COP28. It will be an awkward moment for us on the world stage.

Twenty-five years since Canada signed the Kyoto Protocol – and 25 COP gatherings later – the embarrassing gap between Canada’s environmental ambitions and national performance has only become more glaring. It’s time for Canada to rethink its climate strategy and build a serious plan to deliver on its international climate commitments.

From Kyoto to Copenhagen, Canada has proudly set emission targets, only to miss each one. As the direct and indirect effects of climate change ravage communities across the country, and with a tight window to avoid future catastrophe, it’s clear neither our strategy nor tactics are working. As I join the Canadian delegation in Dubai, I know we can learn from our failures and build an inclusive, realistic and economic means of reaching a net-zero 2050.

For too long, Canada’s climate strategies have consisted mainly of punitive measures against corporations and individuals that attempt to incentivize emissions reductions. Sadly, a person’s standard of living or a company’s performance has been, until very recently, almost directly correlated to their carbon emissions. Consumers, businesses and governments have struggled to square this circle.

One component has been glaringly missing from Canada’s failed emission-reduction efforts to date: a strategy to foster technological innovation that can deliver low-cost and low-carbon energy forms into the complete energy mix – from source to end use.

Canada has the second-highest government R&D spend per capita in the G7. Yet we rank second lowest on the Global Innovation Index. How we incent private-sector investment needs to change.

Let’s use this moment – as the world takes stock of progress at COP28 and the nation’s energy and climate leaders travel to Dubai – to build an innovation framework that capitalizes on our strengths so we can solve our challenges and get to a net-zero future. This framework needs to be built on three principles.

First, we need to focus on those industries with a comparative global advantage to yield the greatest impact.

Canada holds a huge advantage with the wealth of our natural resources and the capabilities of our oil and gas and mining sectors. Locked inside these industries is world-leading engineering know-how, with deep understanding of the large infrastructure projects needed for continuing to diversify our energy mix and meet climate targets.

We need a systematic approach to unlocking this talent, including the investment capacity and technology required. The fact that COP28 is occurring in the world’s largest oil-producing region of the Middle East is an opportunity to highlight Canada’s depth of expertise while building new relationships, new visions and a new approach. With Canadian know-how, we can solve the towering challenge of our generation in partnership with another region that has similar resource comparative advantages.

Second, we need to significantly increase venture capital funding to the energy sector.

The global venture capital community, having led investment in many early-stage technologies, is reeling in our new inflationary world where high interest rates challenge investment cases. Let’s seize the opportunity to attract global climate investment capital to Canada by showcasing the industries that are capable of delivering on the vision for a net-zero future.

Along with continued public-sector R&D spending, we need mechanisms to incentivize our private sector to invest in energy transition technology.

Take, for example, the Pathways Alliance proposed multibillion-dollar carbon-capture hub. Once completed, it will enable Canada to supply the world’s lowest-emission oil, finally making a sizable dent in emissions while ensuring future prosperity. While it is encouraging to see that the clean technology investment tax credit for carbon capture will finally be legislated this fall, projects like this one will still be stymied by uncertainty in government policies, needlessly complex regulatory approvals and an underperforming innovation system.

And finally, we need international technology partnerships.

Awareness is growing worldwide that renewables, as critical as they are, won’t get us to net zero alone. Decarbonizing energy production and use is essential. This must be a global effort that joins Canadian expertise with other hubs of energy innovation around the world, including the Middle East.

While we might not always feel like one Team Canada at home, let’s make sure that we show up in Dubai as a unified, serious team on the world stage with an unprecedented innovation agenda.

Only then can we attract the international partners and investors that will empower Canada to emerge as a global clean-energy leader and solve our long-standing innovation problems.

Krausert, K. (2023, November 29). At cop climate summits, canada can’t keep setting emission goals only to miss them. Globe and Mail.