Ottawa: To meet Canada’s commitment to decarbonize its energy system and contribute to fighting climate change, we will need to produce twice as much renewable electricity across the country as we do today and use that energy efficiently to power our buildings, vehicles and industries. That’s the key finding of Powering Climate Prosperity: Canada’s Renewable Electricity Advantage, the first report from the Canadian Council on Renewable Electricity, released November 19.
The report outlines Canada’s current renewable electricity production and explores how the nation can dramatically reduce carbon emissions by 2050. It argues that three significant changes to Canada’s energy production and consumption are required by 2050 for Canada to do its part to prevent average global temperatures from rising to dangerous levels.
Specifically, the group says, Canada must:
• Intensify efforts to cut energy waste across the economy,
• More than double renewable electricity generation capacity, and
• Increase use of electricity as the “clean fuel of choice” to power the economy.
The report draws on data and modeling conducted by the Low Carbon Pathways group at Carbon Management Canada , and published in Pathways to Deep Decarbonization in Canada (September, 2015).
The report was released in conjunction with the publication of the 16-country report in Paris by the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network (UNSDSN) and the Institute for Sustainable Development and International Relations (IDDRI). The international study was scheduled to be tabled by the French presidency at the United Nations’ 21st Conference of the Parties in December 2015 (COP21).