QUESTION PERIOD — Innovation, Science and Economic Development
Net Zero Accelerator Initiative
May 8, 2024
Senator Gold, as Senator White just mentioned, the Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development released five reports last week. One of these reports was on Innovation, Science, and Economic Development Canada’s Strategic Innovation Fund’s Net Zero Accelerator Initiative. The commissioner reported there’s been difficulty attracting applications from Canada’s largest carbon emitters because there’s little incentive for large emitters to decarbonize their operations. Also, those who did apply found the process lengthy and complex.
Senator Gold, what incentives will the government offer to attract our largest emitters to apply for the Net Zero Accelerator, and will the government commit to improving the application process?
The government is always looking for ways to improve the application process. But I think it’s important to underline, senator, that the Net Zero Accelerator Initiative has been in very high demand since its launch some four years ago. While the government would prefer to reduce heavy emissions even further by 2030, company readiness is very much a factor, since many heavy emitters are still in the planning stages of their decarbonization initiatives.
To that end, I will note, for the benefit of colleagues who don’t follow this as closely as some, that the government funded 129 projects through the Sustainable Forestry Initiative, or SFI, totalling $9.5 billion in funding.
That includes only a couple of the largest emitters, however. Thank you, Senator Gold.
The same report reveals there’s a potential risk in double counting and tracking emissions reductions since both companies that make clean technology and those that use it can claim credit for emissions reductions, when only using clean technologies actually results in emissions reductions. The commissioner recommended that the methodology for tracking emissions reductions be changed so only those with the net reduction effect are counted.
Senator Gold, will the ministry commit to adjusting their methodology to account for this recommended change?
Thank you. The government is always looking for ways to improve both its processes — as I mentioned in response to your first question — and, of course, its methodology. In that regard, I have every confidence that the government carefully considered the recommendations that were presented to it.
