“Canada’s wealth of clean electricity and its innovative spirit can help drive a secure and affordable transformation of its energy system and help realise its ambitious goals.” – Fatih Birol, IEA Executive Director
Since the last IEA review in 2015, Canada has made a series of enterprising international and domestic commitments to put the country on a path towards transforming its energy system, including a target to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 40‑45% by 2030 from 2005 levels and to reach net zero emissions by 2050.
Canada’s energy transformation presents both challenges and opportunities given its profile as a major producer, consumer and exporter of energy, and its highly decentralised government system. The sizeable weight of fossil fuel production in employment and economic output means strong attention should be placed on ensuring a people-centred approach to Canada’s clean energy transition.
Canada has a number of policy measures in place, including an ambitious carbon pricing scheme, clean fuel regulations, a commitment to phase out unabated coal use by 2030, nuclear plant extensions, upstream methane regulations, energy efficiency programmes, and measures to decarbonise the transport sector.
In this report, the IEA provides energy policy recommendations to help Canada effectively manage the transformation of its energy sector in line with its goals.