It has been a challenging year, but as the world begins to heal from a global pandemic, there is new hope on the horizon.
Robert Hornung
President & CEO, Canadian Renewable Energy Association (CanREA)
Our long, hard winter has passed: howling blizzards have turned to rain showers and our beautiful landscapes are once again turning green.
Amidst this optimism, Canadians are also looking to the federal government’s new budget and its plans to rebuild from the economic impacts of COVID-19 through a green recovery, one that also positions Canada to tackle the climate change crisis.
It’s time for a brighter path forward
Communities are already feeling the impacts of climate change, such as increasingly severe spring floods. Rapid and substantial action is required if we are to mitigate these impacts. That is why more than 120 countries, including Canada, have now made commitments to move to net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
While Canada’s GHG emissions have stabilized, we have not yet seen any significant decline in emissions. It’s time to change that.
Meeting a net-zero target is challenging, but achievable. While there are many different potential pathways to net-zero, all have wind energy, solar energy, and energy storage at their core. And that’s where the Canadian Renewable Energy Association comes in.
Canada has abundant solar and wind energy resources, more than enough to fully decarbonize our electricity grid—and to greatly expand it, allowing clean electricity to substitute for fossil fuels in transportation, buildings, and heavy industry.
Why renewables
Putting wind energy, solar energy, and energy storage at the centre of Canada’s energy transition represents the most affordable and positive path forward for Canada’s electricity future.
It will also bring significant economic benefits through local investment and job creation, plus direct payments to homeowners, small businesses, and municipalities in rural and urban areas of Canada, including Indigenous communities.
For all these reasons, wind energy, solar energy, and energy-storage technologies are well positioned to play a critical role in boosting Canada’s economic and climate recovery.
Investments made now will provide immediate benefits in 2021, when we really need them, and long-lasting effects for many years to come, benefitting our children and grandchildren.
CanREA’s Spring Forward Conference
So how can Canada successfully capitalize on this opportunity to achieve both economic recovery and climate change mitigation?
Find out more at the Canadian Renewable Energy Association (CanREA)’s Spring Forward event, April 28 and 29, 2021.
This virtual conference will bring together prominent and insightful speakers from around the world and across Canada with expertise in wind, solar, and energy-storage technologies, including their economic impacts.
