By Johannes Kotilainen
Clean
energy investments in Canada are up 45% since 2012, and totaled $6.5 billion
last year. About $3.5 billion of that went into wind power, according to Clean
Energy Canada. The year 2013 was a record high in Canada for wind projects,
with one new wind turbine being put up every 10 hours. Currently within Canada,
Ontario and Quebec are taking the lead in regards to developing clean energy.
The result of this is that Canada has jumped from 12th to 7th in a group of 20
industrialized nations for investment in renewable energy. This is quite
amazing when politics are taken into account. The majority of nations in this
list have national renewable energy projects in play to help develop this
sector. Even Canada’s neighbor to the south has recently made an agreement with
China to cut its carbon emissions to 26-28% below 2005 levels by 2025. Canada,
federally, has no legislation to reduce carbon emissions and develop renewable
forms of energy.
Normally
we have seen a need for governments to push policy to give more incentives
before the market jumps in. Even without government help, over the past five
years it has been estimated that $25 billion has been invested into renewables
within Canada, the majority going to British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec. The
result of this is that employment in the clean energy sector, composed of
hydro, wind, solar and biomass, is up 37%. This growth has increased jobs in
the sector to 23,700. This total includes manufacturing, but not construction,
in contrast to the oil sands, which employs 22,340 people. Currently, Canada’s
federal policy still promotes the use of oil, which is an industry that’s beginning
to suffer from falling crude prices. This is making clean energy even more
attractive because of the cost to produce oil from our oil sands. With all this
growth in clean energy without government support, imagine the growth and
further success in this sector once federal policy diversifies its energy
preferences.
Find out why
sustainability is important in business and investing: http://www.smallcappower.com/posts/why-sustainability-is-important-in-business-and-investing-johannes-green-investing
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