Canada’s carbon pricing scheme presents $120 billion opportunity – Lux Research

Home-grown Canadian start-ups offer all-of-the-above solution to reducing emissions, with transportation, waste best-positioned

Companies developing technologies to cut carbon emissions are in line for an opportunity worth up to $120 billion as Canada kicks off a carbon pricing program aimed at cutting the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions, according to Lux Research.

Local start-ups targeting transportation and waste are best-positioned to achieve near-term goals, but other sectors also have offerings that can help tackle climate change in Canada.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has mandated each of the 10 Canadian provinces to implement a carbon pricing scheme by 2018, with a minimum of C$10 per metric ton and steadily increasing to C$50 per MT in 2022.

By 2030, Canada seeks to cut emissions by 28 per cent, to 524 million metric tons (MT) of CO₂ equivalent.

“While it remains to be seen how Canada’s provinces will spend the billions in tax revenues, proper allocation of funding can eventually position Canada as a global hotspot for innovations,” said Yuan-Sheng Yu, Lux Research Senior Analyst and lead author of the report.

Lux Research analysts identified and evaluated 76 strong companies out of a list of 349 Canadian companies, identifying well-positioned and high-potential technology developers across seven key sectors: oil and gas, transportation, electricity, buildings, industrial, agriculture, and waste.

Among their findings:

• Transportation and waste firms coming out ahead. Transportation- and waste-related companies have made significant commercial progress and are well-positioned to directly reduce emissions. The building sector is on track for emissions goals and agriculture and electricity show near-term promise, while the industrial sector will likely have to wait longer as promising solutions have proved challenging to implement at scale.
• Canada will emerge as a destination for global technology developers. Non-Canadian technology developers will also likely seek opportunities to penetrate the Canadian market to capitalize on the opportunity. In addition, Canadian technology developers will strengthen their own portfolios of technologies for deployment in the rest of the world as other countries impose their own carbon tax schemes.
• Canada serves as a model for the rest of the world. The path towards emissions neutrality — and ultimately emissions reduction — will be a long process requiring an orchestrated effort from government, corporations, and technology developers. Canada’s implementation of a carbon tax scheme displays its long-term vision for carbon emissions reduction, rather than being derailed by short-sighted and one-off success stories.