Budget provides Climate Change agenda with $3 billion to stimulate adoption of new technologies and processes

Budget measures to support sustainable development and technology adoption are receiving a massive injection of more than $3 billion over five years, with the creation of several new funding initiatives designed to assist Canada in meeting its obligations under the Kyoto Protocol. The Budget funds six instruments, the largest of which are a $1-billion Clean Fund and a $300-million Green Municipal Fund (see chart). At the same time, the government has ordered a review of all climate change programs, which could result in reallocation of funds among existing and new measures.

Innovation figures prominently in several of the new initiatives, most notably a $200-million Sustainable Energy Science and Technology Strategy (SEST) under the authority of Natural Resources Canada (NRCan). Funding for the SEST Strategy is spread over four years, beginning in FY06-07 at $35 million and quickly ramping up to $45 million in FY07-08 and $60 million in the final two years. That gives NRCan time to strike an expert panel to collect information for the development of the strategy in 2006 and its implementation.

The SEST Strategy is designed to lever ideas and financial resources from industry, academia and provincial governments, set medium-term goals for the production and use of conventional and renewable energy sources and develop an action plan to ensure the research goals are met. As part of the Strategy, NRCan will conduct a review of current energy-related S&T spending of about $200 million annually. This includes Sustainable Development Technology Canada, NRCan’s Program for Energy R&D, the CANMET Energy Technology Centre and climate change S&T funding announced in the 2003 Budget (R$, March 7, 2003).

(NRCan also received new funding for two existing programs — a renewal of the Targeted Geoscience Initiative [$25 million over five years] to stimulate industrial resource exploitation, and GeoConnections [$60 million over five years] to integrate on-line geospatial data.)

COMPLEMENTS SDTC

The bulk of the climate change measures is aimed downstream from R&D.The Clean Fund, for example, will allow for the purchase of emission credits geared towards reducing greenhouse gas emissions and pulling technology into the marketplace.

SDTC president and CEO Vicky Sharpe says the climate change initiatives provide an effective complement to her fund, which is aimed at establishing consortia to de-risk promising environmental technologies.

“There needs to be something to accelerate the adoption of these technologies (because) they often require the construction of capital-intensive production plants,” she says. “For capital intensive renewable energy technologies, there’s a difficulty in chasing money. I would see a handing off from SDTC’s area to something like the Clean Fund. I see a good coherency and it’s more explicit this time.”

SDTC is currently developing a business model for sustainable development to help the organization establish a real knowledge capability rather than a series of disparate, funded projects. It will be released this spring.

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