Speech for the Honourable Steven Guilbeault, Minister of Environment and Climate Change, at the Canadian Climate Institute and Net-Zero Advisory Body’s Fourth Annual Climate Conference
October 10, 2024 – Ottawa, Ontario
Check against delivery. This speech has been translated in accordance with the Government of Canada’s official languages policy and edited for posting and distribution in accordance with its communications policy.
Hello.
Thank you Gaëtan for that great scene-setting intro.
I would first like to recognize the fact that we are on the unceded traditional territory of the Algonquin Anishinaabeg People.
I am grateful to the caretakers of this land and water, and I ask that you join me in honouring the connection that the Anishnaabeg People have had to this land for millennia.
This conference comes at a pivotal time.
Building a cleaner and stronger economy in Canada is the course we are on.
It is why we are all gathered here – we share a collective understanding and appreciation for both the economic opportunities and the environmental necessity in front of us.
Now, I see many familiar faces around the audience.
I know many of you have likely come from out of town.
There are lots of hard-working people constructively working to attract and steer investment.
Building a clean economy, like anything that is transformational, requires a vision and clear, bold steps to advance toward it.
In every sector, we can see examples of that leadership—those stepping up with real vision.
I think we just heard some great examples of that vision from the previous keynote.
Two and a half years ago, the Government of Canada launched its climate plan, the most comprehensive plan in our history.
We did our homework, building on the work of our predecessors, to give Canada a truly credible path towards carbon neutrality.
Sector-by-sector, we showed how we could do it – how we could really do it – together.
And since then, with the help of everyone in this room, we’ve put that plan into motion.
Combine industry leadership, with a careful but ambitious balance of investments and regulatory tools: we are bending the curve on Canada’s emissions.
I can tell you this is something I hear all the time.
But more importantly our plan is working. Evidence of progress is rolling in.
Recently, the Canadian Climate Institute, showed our country’s net emissions are starting to drop, between 2022 to 2023.
The Institute also found that Canada’s economy continued to grow while emissions declined—what we call “decoupling.”
What does that mean?
It means growing the economy in 2024 does not mean more pollution.
In fact, it points to the larger transformation underway.
Now, Canadians may best associate our climate plan with carbon pricing.
Could you blame them?
But there are in fact over 100 measures we have put in place as part of our climate plan that serve as the foundation of a cleaner economy for Canada.
Those measures have taken us from a place where, in 2015, we were projected to blow past our emission targets for 2030, to where we are now.
Our emissions are now at their lowest point in 25 years.
Never have we seen a drop in emissions, while our economy is chugging at full steam.
This progress should not be taken for granted.
We need to keep our horse in the race of a global economy that is moving faster than ever.
I’m very pleased to share some exciting news from yesterday on how we’re trying to move the dial further on developing a clean energy economy.
First: yesterday, the Deputy Prime Minister Freeland announced the guidelines for a Made-in-Canada sustainable investment taxonomy and mandatory climate disclosures for the largest Canadian private businesses.
The sustainable investment taxonomy gives investors certainty on whether their investments are consistent with meeting global climate targets.
It provides needed clarity that will boost financing from the private sector for sustainable activities across the Canadian economy.
That includes things like building EV batteries, generating clean energy and decarbonization projects in heavy industries.
The taxonomy will help direct investment to much-needed job-creating activities.
Many of you will have seen the headlines on this…
Simply put: Projects need to be credibly aligned with limiting temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius to be considered a “green” or “transition” investment.
Of course, developing these guidelines do not prevent investors from deciding where they wish to put their money.
They are purely voluntary.
But they do provide a common language on whether investments support climate goals or not.
Similarly, requiring large businesses to provide climate-related financial disclosures to shareholders will help attract investment into sustainable activities across the economy.
Disclosures help investors better understand how large businesses are thinking about and managing risks related to climate change.
And we look forward to fleshing out that regulatory approach.
We are building on the success of our Green Bond program.
Like the taxonomy, Green Bonds direct financial flows towards those business opportunities that are key to reaching our net-zero targets.
We have now launched Green Bonds twice in the market. First in 2022, and again earlier this year.
Both times, the final book orders far exceeded the original offering.
And because of that demand, we re-opened a third Green Bond this week.
I am pleased to report that demand is still strong, and we are well over the offering amount.
So, sustainable finance is the way to go.
Let me give you another more tangible example.
Last year, the Government of Canada delivered on the Clean Fuel Regulations, which encourages oil and gas refineries to lower the carbon intensity of their fuel production.
Because of built-in incentives within this policy, we have already seen significant investments:
Over $53 billion in investments have been announced across Canada in low-carbon intensity fuels such as green hydrogen, renewable diesel, and sustainable aviation fuel.
For example, the oil refinery in Come-By-Chance, Newfoundland was converted into a major renewable diesel facility.
The federal government supported Braya Renewable Fuels to commercialize its production of renewable diesel and sustainable aviation fuel.
It started operations in February 2024 and now produces up to 18,000 barrels per day of renewable diesel.
Two hundred people work there full-time.
These and similar companies now have the ability to create and sell valuable credits for supplying low carbon fuel to Canada.
That’s progress.
And it comes from creating the right support and incentive structures for the industry.
I was delighted to listen to our previous speaker Adam Auer, the President and CEO of the Cement Association of Canada.
It has taken determination to turn words into action, and guide the change we’ve witnessed in the cement industry over the past two years.
It takes a lot of heat and energy to make cement using conventional processes.
As you heard earlier this morning, the Cement Association of Canada decided they had to change.
This industry released their roadmap to cleaner sources of fuel. And as you heard, they stuck to their plan.
The results were apparent to me this summer, when I visited a green cement plant in St. Marys, Ontario.
This is where carbon pricing—and in this case industrial carbon pricing—really gets a chance to shine.
With money collected by the federal government from carbon pricing system on industry, we re-invested those revenues into an emissions reduction project at St. Marys Cement.
There is so much misinformation coming at us through various channels that not everyone is sure carbon pricing works.
It does, and here’s how:
With money collected by the federal government from industrial pollution pricing, we re-invested in an emissions reduction project at St. Marys Cement.
New kiln technology was installed that uses low-carbon fuels.
This new process reduces the use of high-priced carbon-intensive fuels by up to 30%.
This means less climate pollution and cleaner air for the town.
It also increases the company’s long-term competitiveness and sustainability. And pride!
Take a town like St. Marys with a population of under nine thousand people.
A major employer in that town makes a significant low-carbon change in its production process.
From that, we get direct positive results:
- First, the sustainability of the jobs at the cement plant.
- Second, the drop in greenhouse gas emissions, equivalent to 9,400 gas-powered cars off the road for a year.
- Third, they are saving energy costs for their business.
Examples like this play out in countless communities across the country.
Government has an important role in mobilizing the investments to get these projects underway.
But how does Canada keep up the momentum? Well, let’s just look at the growing clean energy sector.
Internationally, this sector has achieved lift-off.
I mean, Europe is now at three quarters of renewable and clean energy sources. It’s incredible.
Clean sources of power are reliable, they are increasingly cheaper to build and the energy generated is cheaper to store.
Clean energy enterprises are in a state of super-evolution.
In New Brunswick, the Burchill Wind Energy Project is one of the largest battery energy storage facilities in Atlantic Canada.
It’s just outside of Saint John and is overseen by the Tobique First Nation.
When I visited earlier this year, Tobique First Nation Chief Ross Perley, said it best:
“One of our traditional values as a nation is to take care of the environment.
Green energy projects are going to start taking over, and they’re going to dominate, and that’s the way to the future.”
Chief Perley got it right.
And it’s no coincidence that Indigenous Peoples in Canada are playing such a major role in the clean energy revolution. We see it from coast-to-coast-to-coast.
Canada is already in a good position with the vast majority of our electricity from non-emitting sources.
We know that demand will likely double over the coming decades.
It is no longer a matter of doing the “right thing for the environment” but also the “right thing for business”
Across the countries, companies are shifting investment towards cleaner industry to meet our future energy demands.
That’s why we launched new investment tax credits for clean electricity production, which add to a range of programs supporting electricity.
Labour groups have endorsed these credits because for employers to receive their full value they must commit to fair payment of good-paying union-level jobs.
And we will launch the clean electricity regulations that back our strategy for a cleaner grid in Canada.
There are so many opportunities awaiting, nationwide.
You’re in this room because you have seen a business pivot or you have guided a business to respond to events, to adjust, to morph, to reinvent itself.
Changing the way we power our daily lives and our Canadian society really starts with changing the way that we THINK.
The federal government is here to guide growth, to support the science and to spark investment.
Canada’s robust, clean economy will allow us to enjoy prosperous lives while respecting the natural environment, instead of destroying or exploiting it.
The climate crisis requires us to be innovative together, to encourage each other, and to keep the conversations going.
Thank you for your time, your thoughtfulness and for the perspective you’ll bring back home from this conference.
Enjoy the day.