- 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
This Outlook is a modelling effort that analyses possible transformation pathways required to achieve net-zero GHG emissions in Canada, with a special focus on the energy system. Produced by independent researchers, this Canadian Energy Outlook 2021 (hereafter the CEO2021) builds on extensive techno-economic modelling to analyze the trends occurring across the country, the possible transformation of the energy sector over the next decades, the political choices that need to be made to reach national objectives, and the considerable gap between promises and targets. This analysis helps contrast the projected evolution of the energy system and GHG emissions with the measures implemented, to assess their coherence. The hypotheses and limits underlying this work, along with a brief discussion of the recent evolution of Canada’s energy sector, form the core of this introductory chapter.