Cleantech is growing
Re: The green economy has been cancelled, Philip Cross, Dec. 19 Philip Cross argues that green industries are “worthless” to Canada’s economy — a prime example of the sort of conversations we ought not to be having about Canadian Cleantech, a budding industry that is working against macroeconomic forces and centuries of entrenched industrial development.
His piece, a reaction to StatCan’s recent report on the state of the Canadian Cleantech economy, argues that this industry is not yet developed, as it represents roughly 3.1 per cent of Canada’s GDP, and should therefore be abandoned. The notion that something that has not yet happened will never happen is completely nonsensical.
Cross posits that government subsidies indicate an unsustainable market for green energy, but, when looking at the level of subsidy each energy technology received during the first 15 years of its deployment, O&G received roughly five times that of renewables, and nuclear nearly 10 times this amount (as a percentage of inflation-adjusted spending).
In an attempt to convince readers that green tech is expensive, Cross bashes hydro’s extremely expensive “mega-projects,” which he claims raise retail electricity rates for consumers. While it is true that hydro projects tend to be extremely large (hundreds of megawatts to gigawatts), and up-front capital intensive, these projects end up generating the cheapest electricity per unit of energy over their lifetimes out of any other technology. This is why many Canadians experience some of the cheapest electricity rates in the world.
Although clean-energy jobs will never represent a significant share of the countries’ opportunities due to the fact that energy jobs are more capital than labour intensive — a point Cross makes but fails to realize applies to all energy technologies — they do represent an opportunity for Canadians. Citizens concerned with job creation can rejoice in the fact that Cleantech jobs tend to be higher paying than the national average.
Canada is already working towards positioning itself to be an important exporter of goods, services and energy to this emerging industry. Export Development Canada has committed $450 million for Canadian clean-technology projects. Domestically, Canada’s federal carbon tax will also drive some growth. However, there is still a large gap between goals and actionable policy. Cross’s article moves the conversation around Cleantech in the wrong direction. We need optimism and ingenuity to drive clean, profitable solutions to our dirty industries. Stephan Ouaknine, managing partner, Inerjys Ventures