Heavy industry in Canada is lagging on carbon emissions. Investing in disruptive technologies could help – Toronto Star
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We are running out of time to make the changes necessary to avoid the worst impacts of climate change.
A recent report from the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change shows that the world needs to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 43 per cent by 2030 to meet the Paris Agreement goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius by the end of the century. That is just over seven years away.
If we do not take aggressive action now to drastically reduce emissions, we will not be able to stop the warming of the planet — and the consequences that stem from it.
In Canada, the federal government has pledged to reduce the country’s carbon emissions by 40 to 45 per cent by 2030 (from 2005 levels), and to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050. Its plan to reach these targets includes a new tax credit to spur the private sector investment in technologies that capture carbon dioxide emissions from the atmosphere, and subsequently use or store them.
While the tax credit is a good start, it does not go far enough to drive significant change in an important source of carbon emissions: heavy industry. This includes the manufacture of steel, cement, fertilizers and other chemicals.
Heavy industry is responsible for about one-tenth of the country’s total greenhouse gas emissions, making it the fourth-highest emitting sector of the economy. It is also a sector that has been slow to move to more environmentally friendly processes, with its emissions dropping by only 10 per cent since 2005.
Almost all of that change is through minor retrofits and routine upgrades of legacy infrastructure, not the adoption of any particularly disruptive technology. This is in sharp contrast to industries like transportation and energy production, where electric vehicles and renewable energy have created disruptive change.
To achieve more drastic emissions reductions, heavy industry leaders and government decision-makers need to identify, invest in and adopt the right technologies. To do this, they must collaborate with private investors to determine the best clean technology projects and concentrate investment incentives there.
The current parameters for the tax credit do not include financial incentives for carbon abatement technologies that introduce new production processes to reduce or eliminate carbon emissions, or that use low-emission materials to make better products.
In heavy industry, there are technologies to stop the flowing tap of carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere, rather then letting the massive leaks require more expensive solutions for removal and repair down the line.
To meet Canada’s climate goals, investments in both carbon abatement and carbon removal are critical. Decision-makers in government need to give them equal consideration.
To get the emissions reductions needed, leaders must invest more significantly at early stages of promising climate technology companies, encouraging a culture of risk-taking and innovation like that within successful high-tech companies.
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