- Introduction
- Energy production, transformation and trade
- Energy use across Canada
- Energy and the economy in Canada
- Policy focus: accelerating the deployment of GHG reduction strategies
- The evolution of energy consumption toward net-zero futures
- Transforming energy production in net-zero pathways
- Evolution of GHG emissions in net-zero scenarios
- Key technological pathways to net-zero
- Provincial overview
- Reaching carbon neutrality—technological paths in other net-zero reports
- Using carbon capture in the right place—the potential role of CCS in energy production
- Special focus on industry—transformation through technological innovation
- Assessing the costs of energy transition through electrification
- Conclusion—the challenges of transforming Canada’s energy system toward net-zero
- Appendices
As shown in Chapters 2 and 3, energy plays an important role in Canada’s economy because of the country’s high consumption levels and a substantial energy production sector. Acknowledging the major variations across the provinces’ energy profiles is essential to understanding how regional constituencies affect action and policies targeting energy consumption and production. The energy sector’s contribution to the economy, together with consumer preferences respecting energy expenses, produce a political economy of energy fraught with challenges inherent to low-carbon transformations.
Highlights
- Although oil and gas constitute the energy sector’s largest contribution to Canada’s GDP, they contribute far less in terms of employment owing to the high value of exports.
- Export revenues are subject to variations, largely due to the sector’s vulnerability to changing market conditions in the United States.
- Investment in the renewables sector has a greater impact on job creation despite making a smaller contribution to GDP.
- Over the past decade, the increase in transport-related energy expenditures has led to higher-income households having a significantly higher carbon footprint than lower-income households, while these expenditures represent a heavier burden for the latter.