Canada’s political leaders have pledged to step up the fight against climate change, including significantly reducing emissions and polishing the nation’s international reputation, raising prospects for renewable energy developers across the country.
New Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and 11 provincial and territorial premiers met in Ottawa this week to take the first steps in crafting a national strategy in advance of the Paris summit.
Federal minister of environment and climate change Catherine McKenna said: “The government of Canada will work closely with the provinces and territories to take action on climate change, put a price on carbon, reduce emissions and invest in clean technologies.”
Energy policy is largely left to the provinces and some have already outlined new plans.
Alberta this week announced it will phase out coal-fired electricity generation by 2030, two-thirds of which are to be replaced primarily by wind power. The western province said renewable energy sources will provide 30% of electricity production by 2030.
Alberta also set a price on carbon. It will be phased in, starting at C$20/tonne in 2017 and rising to C$30/tonne in 2018. Other strategies include cuts to oil sands emissions and methane reduction.
Saskatchewan utility SaskPower yesterday set a target to double the percentage of renewable electricity generation capacity by 2030 to 50%.
Minister responsible for SaskPower Bill Boyd said: “That means a major expansion of wind power augmented by other renewables, such as solar, biomass, geothermal and hydro, to go along with the world leading Boundary Dam 3 carbon capture project and more natural gas generation.”
The utility will move forward with procurement of 100MW of wind generation in 2016 and will develop up to 1600MW of new wind generation between 2019 and 2030.
SaskPower also plans a 60MW utility-scale solar competitive procurement in 2016.
Ontario recently said it will join a cap-and-trade system in 2017 with more details expected this week.
Leaders have yet to come up with national targets and federal cost-sharing plans.
“After the Paris conference, we will again meet with the provinces and work together toward a pan-Canadian framework where we can collaboratively advance concrete actions to tackle climate change,” said McKenna.
