Globe Climate: Can Canada keep up in the race to world cleantech superpower?

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Good afternoon, and welcome to Globe Climate, a newsletter about climate change, environment and resources in Canada. We usually send this newsletter out on Mondays but because this week was a holiday weekend, we are sending it out today. We’ll be back to normal next week!

De-influencing is a new movement that is encouraging social-media users to stop buying new products instead of keeping up with the latest trends. Do we all really need a new water bottle to drink more water? Or to buy clothes that will not survive the next round of seasonal changes? Lots of folks are finding ways to make use of the things they already have, or buying used instead of new if they do need more. Especially when it comes to decorating.

To help you further de-influence your home, here are ways to make your thrifted decor finds look high-end. Also, learn about how stooping, or curb-shopping, takes off as a cheap and environmentally-friendly way to furnish your place. Being less wasteful is not only good for your life, but also the environment!

Now, let’s catch you up on other news.

Noteworthy reporting this week:

1. Innovation: Indigenous entrepreneur makes building bricks with hemp waste
2. Code minimum: Canada’s latest building codes don’t account for more severe climate
3. Forestry: B.C. moves to fast-track its overdue old growth protection commitments
4. The Globe in Norway: Norway’s embrace of the petrostate paradox sets example for Canada’s ‘just transition’ promise
5. EVs: Quebec’s Lion Electric Co. transforming an industry by cranking out electric school buses
6. Energy: Alberta to release emissions reduction and energy plan; meanwhile FortisBC upsets climate activists as it touts LNG marine fuel proposal
7. News from The Narwhal: Developers are asking to build on more sections of Ontario’s Greenbelt

A deeper dive

Canada playing keep up

Ryan MacDonald is senior editor of environment, climate and resources at The Globe. For this week’s deeper dive, he talks about Canada’s role in climate investments.

The United States has changed the playing field on climate investments – it’s time for Canada to act.

With the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, it’s clear the U.S. wants to become the world’s cleantech superpower. Can Canada keep up? Should it? How?

For months, these and other questions have been at the forefront of climate discussions. Europe is rattled and has proposed a counterpunch. Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland says Canada’s response will be part of the federal budget and provinces and territories need to chip in.

The Globe’s Adam Radwanski provides some key answers today with an exclusive report that lays bare how Canada is being surpassed by the U.S. in putting money on the table for specific industries and technologies.

The Act represents America’s largest single investment to combat climate change. It includes a range of tax credits and direct investments for clean technologies, totaling US$369-billion over 10 years to accelerate the nation’s energy transition. You can read about more here.

The U.S. has recognized that climate change is already redefining competitive advantages in supply chains and value chains. As The Globe’s Jeffrey Jones reports, some Canadian cleantech executives worry capital for green projects is being diverted to the United States to take advantage of the richer subsidies.

Some have cautioned against trying to mimic U.S. policies, instead arguing in favour of approaches that play to Canada’s industrial strengths and climate goals to avoid a ‘U.S.-lite’ strategy.

As Adam writes, however, there is a fundamental difference between the types of financial incentives the two countries have put on the table. The U.S. has gone big on production tax credits, while Canada doles out its green subsidies in a more discretionary way through programs like the Net Zero Accelerator.

What Adam’s reporting makes clear is that Canada faces some urgent choices about where it wants to compete and how. To put it more bluntly: We need to figure out where Canada can get into the slipstream of this massive movement. Otherwise, the Americans are going to eat our lunch.

-Ryan

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What else you missed

• Skiers seek climate change moves: ‘The seasons have shifted’
• Imperial Oil files cleanup plan for tailings leak in Alberta, won’t disclose details
• Rising seas risk ‘death sentence’ for some nations, says UN secretary-general
• Federal ministers send Nunavut diamond mine proposal to environmental review
• Fisheries Department to shut 15 salmon farms off B.C.’s coast to protect wild fish
• Extreme drought makes cattle farmers thin herds, could cause future supply problems
• Biden administration’s new EV charger rules stress Made In America, force Tesla changes
• IKEA shrinks its climate footprint with help from new light bulbs
• Warm water melts weak spots on Antarctica’s ‘Doomsday Glacier’, scientists say
• Northern spotted owl in B.C. found injured near train tracks after release
• Alberta offers to work with federal government on carbon capture incentives
• Famed Rideau Canal Skateway to remain closed as warm weather persists
• Italy faces new drought alert as famous Venice canals run dry

Opinion and analysis

The editorial board: What will B.C. do with its surging carbon-tax revenues?

Andy Byford: We must urgently reinvent public transit for the post-pandemic world

Thomas Homer-Dixon, Michael Lawrence and Scott Janzwood: Dismissing the term ‘polycrisis’ has one inevitable consequence – reality always bites

Green Investing

New global climate accounting standards take aim at greenwashing

The International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) is close to finalizing what it calls a global baseline of reporting practices, in response to widespread complaints that a hodgepodge of disclosure methods make comparing and analyzing corporate progress on such issues a confusing slog. The rules are set to be completed by midyear and will start being used in January, 2024.

In Canada, the ISSB regulations will be studied by a new Canadian Sustainability Standards Board, which will be in charge of adapting them to suit an economy with a large number of resource-extraction companies, as well as small- and medium-sized enterprises that rely heavily on exports. It is nearing its selection of a chairperson.

• Sustainability playing widening role in corporate deal-making
• Why ESG investing is at a ‘critical stage’ after nearly 20 years

Making waves

Each week The Globe will profile a Canadian making a difference. This week we’re highlighting the work of Ava Furfaro amplifying the harm of fast fashion.

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Hi, my name is Ava Furfaro, I’m 17 years old and live in downtown Toronto.

I’ve always loved fashion, even as a young child picking out my own outfits for elementary school. My goal is to pursue a career in fashion, or somewhere in a creative field. It was in the midst of the pandemic that I began learning about a lot of the issues surrounding the fashion industry, especially among people my age.

I was given the opportunity to write for The Walrus where I was able to bring awareness to the problems in the industry, particularly fast fashion. But we consumers can change the narrative. The rate at which we throw out clothing makes the situation worse, especially as trends come and go. When I occasionally shop from fast fashion retailers, I do my best to buy something I will keep for a long time.

I advocate for people my age to do the same, and to take proper care of their clothes when they bring them home. I also encourage better methods of discarding such as donation or selling. This strategy of more thoughtful consumption is how we, as consumers, can reduce textile waste and create a more environmentally conscious future.

- Ava

Do you know an engaged individual? Someone who represents the real engines pursuing change in the country? Email us at GlobeClimate@globeandmail.com to tell us about them.

Photo of the week

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Catch up on Globe Climate

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• The last ice merchant of Ecuador
• Your home isn’t built to last against extreme weather
• New fishing tech could help save North Atlantic right whales

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