Canada

Investments
Investments

Clean Energy RD&D investments

Canada has met and exceeded the MI doubling pledge in the first phase, reporting $786.8M CAD for fiscal year 2019-20, $11.8M CAD above the $775M CAD target.

Going forward, recent commitments by the Government of Canada, including through the Strengthened Climate Plan (December 2020) and Budget 2021 (April 2021) will place Canada on a course to maintain or expand its level of effort to support clean energy technology advancement and deployment.

The Strengthened Climate Plan includes 64 strengthened and new federal policies and programs and over $15 billion in investment, in addition to the Canada Infrastructure Bank’s $6 billion for clean infrastructure announced as part of its growth plan.

Budget 2021 proposed additional investments to support and deliver world-class science and policy, positioning Canada as a global leader in clean technology and clean growth. For example, NRCan will receive $319 million over seven years to support Carbon Capture, Utilization and Storage (CCUS) research, development and smaller scale demonstrations to improve the commercial viability of CCUS.  To drive this emerging set of technologies to market, the Government also proposed an investment tax credit for capital invested in CCUS projects, with the goal of reducing emissions by 15 Mt annually.  The tax credit would incentivize CCUS technologies, including Direct Air Capture and hydrogen production.  NRCan also continues to develop a federal CCUS Strategy to ensure that these measures, along with others, provide a coordinated approach to advancing this critical technology.

As part of Budget 2021, an additional $5 billion over seven years was also announced for the Strategic Innovation Fund’s Net Zero Accelerator to expedite de-carbonization projects with large emitters, scale-up clean technology, and accelerate Canada’s industrial transformation across all sectors.  This builds on the $3 billion over 5 years for the Net Zero Accelerator previously announced in the Strengthened Climate Plan, and complements the additional $750 million for Sustainable Development Technology Canada announced to support Canadian entrepreneurs as they develop and commercialize clean technologies and bring Canadian innovations to the world.