November 25, 2020

Every two weeks, Mike Moffatt, Senior Director at SPI, explores five things to watch in the clean economy in a segment for Smart Prosperity: The Podcast.

I’m Mike Moffatt, Senior Director at Smart Prosperity, and here are the five clean economy things I’m watching this week: 

1) The federal government has introduced climate accountability legislation to formally commit Canada to its target of net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. The long-awaited bill sets out mandatory national five-year targets to cut emissions.

2) Shell is launching its Drive Carbon Neutral program in Canada to allow customers to buy offset credits to reduce net carbon dioxide emissions. When customers opt-in via Shell’s EasyPay app and pay a cost of 2 cents a litre the company will calculate the amount of carbon emissions that will be produced by that fuel and buy an offsetting amount of carbon credits.

3) Toronto-Dominion Bank has introduced a global climate action plan that includes rejecting work on oil and gas projects within the Arctic Circle and moving to net-zero carbon dioxide emissions from its operations and financing activities by 2050.

4) The Federation of Canadian Municipalities is calling on Ottawa to continue emergency funding for municipal transit systems, which are facing major budget shortfalls during the pandemic. The Federation believes any economic recovery plan should include new funding to expand transit networks and accelerate the adoption of zero-emission trains and buses.

5) A new University of Calgary report finds that, over the last decade, solar prices have fallen by 90 percent and wind prices have fallen by 70 percent. These costs are not only falling below the costs to build a new fossil fuel power plant, they are falling below the cost of operating existing plants.

Listen to the full segment, and plenty of other great content, in today's new episode of Smart Prosperity: The Podcast. Our podcast provides fresh takes on the current affairs, politics, research and business of the clean economy. And all served up in 25 minutes or less. New episodes posted every two weeks.