Accelerating the pace of clean innovation in Canada is not only an important tool for meeting climate and environmental goals, it also represents a critical economic opportunity across all sectors of Canada’s economy.
This landmark report Clean Innovation lists six key recommendations to accelerate innovation for a stronger, cleaner economy that benefits all Canadians:
1. Unleash private investment in clean innovation. By co-investing in promising clean technologies, governments can de-risk and catalyze the large amounts of private investment needed to grow these inventions into market successes. Public support should target priority areas where Canada has comparative advantages —with particular focus on hard-to-finance stages and technologies.
2. Set world-class environmental standards and innovation incentives. Adopting stringent environmental policies — particularly pollution pricing and other flexible tools — will spur demand for clean innovation, position Canadian businesses as environmental performance leaders, and send the long-term signals needed to drive private initiative and investment. Well-designed policies that reduce barriers to innovation, paired with targeted incentives, can strengthen Canada’s economy-wide competitiveness.
3. Open export markets. Prioritizing clean innovation in Canada’s trade missions and programs, while also supporting ambitious international climate and environmental agreements, will help boost global demand for made-in-Canada clean technology solutions.
4. Lead by example through green procurement and infrastructure. By leveraging their own purchasing power as Canada’s biggest buyer, governments can grow the market for clean innovation, build the infrastructure to prepare us for a low-carbon economy, and provide a testbed and showcase for Canadian clean technologies.
5. Strengthen Canada’s clean innovation ecosystem. Nurturing clusters and incubators, generating better data (to inform investments and policies), and investing in skills, capacity building, and developing young entrepreneurs can help grow a stronger, more connected innovation system for a 21st century clean economy.
6. Create a Clean Innovation Strategy. Bringing key players together to map out Canada’s comparative advantages and priorities in the global clean innovation race will ensure that everyone is pulling in the same direction in making investment, infrastructure, research, and resource allocation decisions.