Boston, MA: Companies developing technologies to cut carbon emissions are in line for an opportunity worth up to $120 billion as Canada kicks off a carbon pricing program aimed at cutting the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions, according to research results released April 20 by Lux Research.
Local start-ups targeting transportation and waste are best positioned to achieve near-term goals, but other sectors also have offerings that can help tackle climate change in Canada.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has mandated each of the 10 Canadian provinces to implement a carbon pricing scheme by 2018, with a minimum of $10 per metric tonne and steadily increasing to $50 per MT in 2022. By 2030, Canada seeks to cut emissions by 28%, to 524 million MT of CO2 equivalent.
“While it remains to be seen how Canada’s provinces will spend the billions in tax revenues, proper allocation of funding can eventually position Canada as a global hotspot for innovations,” said Yuan-Sheng Yu, Lux Research Senior Analyst and lead author of the report titled, “Analyzing Canada’s Ecosystem for Carbon Emissions Reduction Technologies.”
Lux Research analysts identified and evaluated 76 firms out of a list of 349 Canadian companies, identifying well-positioned and high-potential technology developers across seven key sectors: oil and gas, transportation, electricity, buildings, industrial, agriculture, and waste. Among their findings:
• Transportation and waste firms come out ahead. Transportation- and waste-related companies have made significant commercial progress and are well positioned to directly reduce emissions. The building sector is on track for emissions goals and agriculture and electricity show near-term promise, while the industrial sector will likely have to wait longer as promising solutions have proved challenging to implement at scale.
• Canada will emerge as a destination for global technology developers. Non-Canadian technology developers will also likely seek opportunities to penetrate the Canadian market to capitalize on the opportunity. In addition, Canadian technology developers will strengthen their own portfolios of technologies for deployment in the rest of the world as other countries impose their own carbon tax schemes.
• Canada serves as a model for the rest of the world. The path towards emissions neutrality – and ultimately emissions reduction – will be a long process requiring an orchestrated effort from government, corporations, and technology developers. Canada’s implementation of a carbon tax scheme embodies its long-term vision for carbon emissions reduction, rather than being focused on one-off success stories.
The report, titled “Analyzing Canada’s Ecosystem for Carbon Emissions Reduction Technologies,” is part of the Lux Research Intelligence service.