CTC #79 - What Budget '24 means for climate innovation

Hey there, welcome to another issue of Climate Tech Canada, your weekly roundup of everything going on at the intersection of tech and climate.

We’ve got another episode of The Climate Cycle coming out later this week to talk about climate action in the workplace. It’s going to be a good one packed with lots of actionable insights on integrating sustainability into the workday.

This week in climate tech:

• What’s in Budget ‘24 for the climate?

• SWTCH closes Series B to bring EV charging to condos

• The world comes to Ottawa for plastics negotiations

Let’s go!

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🇨🇦 Climate x Budget ‘24

What happened: The feds rolled out their latest budget last week which included more than $14B in new spending on climate action across EVs, housing, carbon removal, and more. Here’s a look at some of the most notable announcements:

Tax Credits 2.0: A new 10% Electric Vehicle Supply Chain tax credit on top of the Clean Technology tax credit announced last year. It’s part of a strategy to move away from one-off subsidies like the $13B offered to Volkswagen last year and towards more predictable and efficient tools. It also encourages EV makers (*cough* Honda *cough*) to locate more of their supply chain in Canada, requiring businesses to invest in electric vehicle assembly, battery production and cathode active material production to be eligible.

Climate-smart housing: The Canada Greener Homes program got its revamp, with $800M over 5 years to support retrofits for low- to median-income households. It’s a smaller purse than the $2.6B over 3 years for the previous version of the program, but the focus on lower incomes households could create a bigger impact by making retrofits possible for a larger number of households. 

The feds also introduced $6B to fund wastewater, stormwater, and solid waste infrastructure for new homes, easing the burden on cities for new development and climate adaptation. But the funds are contingent on provinces supporting “gentle density”, new building codes, and transit oriented development that can help make cities more sustainable.

Other housing efforts include updating energy efficiency programs, developing more climate-ambitious building codes and developing a home energy labelling program. 

More notable announcements:

• Returning $2.5B in carbon rebates to small businesses and increasing the rebate for First Nations.

• $1B to support biofuels production via the Clean Fuels Fund and Canada Infrastructure Bank (despite their mixed climate benefits)

• $145M for First Nations climate resiliency and plans for national flood insurance.

• Extending a $135M federal procurement program for low-carbon fuel to include buying carbon removal.

• $14.5M to help cleantech SMBs create and protect intellectual property via Innovation Asset Collective

• Expanding Carbon Contracts for Difference via the Canada Growth Fund with “off-the-shelf” contracts.

• Plans to speed up major projects including a 3 year target to approve nuclear projects

The bottom line: While climate wasn’t a huge focus in the government’s comms for the budget, new climate funding was the single largest increase in the budget - about $14B through 2035. New policy tools could be high leverage, like attaching requirements for transit-oriented development to provincial funding or including supply chain requirements in the EV tax credit.

What’s next: Implementation. The tax credits announced last year still haven’t come into effect and there’s a 30% gap between committed funds vs actual spending on climate. The real test of these climate ambitions will be the government’s ability to roll them out, figure out major project timelines, and create the conditions for more innovation.

📬 I’d love to get your input - Hit reply and let me know what you think the budget got right and what it’s missing. 

💰 Funding: Bringing at-home charging to condos

What happened: Toronto-based SWTCH Energy closed a $27.2M Series B round to bring at-home charging to multi-unit buildings like apartments and condos. SWTCH offers turnkey EV charging solutions that removes some of the major barriers like upfront installation costs and electrical upgrades faced by building operators.

One of the key features for building owners is SWTCH’s ability to dynamically adjust the energy being used by EV chargers based on a building’s real-time energy consumption. This lets buildings install more chargers, operating at full speed when energy use is low and then dialling back when building demand is higher. 

Why it matters: EV adoption is growing steadily, but for anyone who doesn’t own a home it can be a pain to get charging infrastructure installed. Often it means months of work to convince a condo board or trying to get your apartment owner on board. By unlocking multi-unit charging, SWTCH is helping make the switch to an EV feasible for more people.

What’s next: SWTCH claims they’ve seen 10x year-over-year growth since their Series A and will use the new funding to accelerate deployment with real estate customers.

💰 Other funding

⚡️ Montreal’s Eocycle Technologies closed $25M in Series A funding to bring their distributed wind turbines to the U.S. and Europe. Eocycle offers small wind turbines for on-site energy generation, providing energy for industrial and commercial owners at a lower cost than utilities.

🌊 Halifax-based Clean Valley CIC is raising $1.5M to transition its aquaculture solution to a “hardware-as-a-service” model. Clean Valley is developing a system that uses algae to filter waste water and feed oyster farms.

📈 Milestones & Growth

💨 CO280 will work with Aker Carbon Capture and Microsoft to explore opportunities in scaling carbon removal in Canada

🏅 Climate tech dominated the latest GreenShoots Accelerator cohort, with startups like Genuine Taste (cell-cultured fat), BioLabMate (seaweed-based plastics)and Profillet (plant-based seafood) taking home up to $40K each.

🚌 Lion Electric cuts another 120 jobs to reduce costs. Again, the company pointed to delays in the Zero-Emission Transit Fund. 

🗞️ In the news

🌎 Life after plastic: Ottawa is hosting the UN Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee this week, where countries will continue to work through possible scope, wording, and mechanisms to address plastic pollution. Tackling plastics is high-leverage for climate: plastic is made from oil, contributing 3% of global emissions while creating a pathway to extend the lifespan of oil & gas extraction. Not to mention the impacts on biodiversity and human health. 

👷 Sustainable jobs: The Sustainable Jobs Act is one step closed to reality after passing in the House of Commons. The bill has been stalled for months by Conservatives (who tabled 20,000 amendments to slow it down). While mostly administrative, the bill is focused on supporting workers through the energy transition and creating a 5-year Sustainable Jobs Action Plan. The act now heads to the Senate.

☀️ Solar close to home: Hydro-Québec is exploring distributed, urban solar to meet growing energy demand and ease the load on transmission and distribution. The utility wants to bring 300 MW of solar online by 2032. The plan favours solar projects in urban centres, like rooftop solar. With power being generated closer to the point of consumption, there’s less demand on the transmission network, and can connect into existing infrastructure.

🌎 Big picture

Damage from climate change could cost $38T per year by 2050. The cost of limiting global warming? Just $6T.

Climate Brick launches a manual for scaling climate tech.

SOSV and Wellington Management each close +$300M climate tech funds.

Bezos Earth Fund launches $100M in grants for projects using AI to tackle climate change and nature loss.

Microplastics can travel to the brain and other vital organs.

A new wire design could transform grid transmission projects.

📣 What’s going on

🗓️ Plastics Action Zone: Organized around UN negotiations for a global plastics treaty, this week of events profiles Canadian leadership on plastics through science-based solutions, innovation and collaboration. April 23-29th, Ottawa.

🗓️ Carbon Markets and Platforms: Hosted by Innovation Climat Montreal, join this discussion on all things carbon markets and credits. April 24th, Montreal.

🗓️ Scaling Trust in Voluntary Carbon Markets: Join Ottawa’s climate community to explore the role of the carbon markets in fighting climate change, their integrity, future potential, and what role Canada could play. April 25th, Ottawa

🗓️ AWS ClimateTech Fireside Chat and Mixer: Join the Vancouver climate tech community to explore emerging trends and opportunities in the space, featuring local investors and entrepreneurs. April 29th, Vancouver.

🗓️ The 101 for Building a Sustainable Lifestyle: Join Climate North for this Earth Month celebration, focused on the tools and knowledge needed to live your most sustainable life. April 30th, Toronto.

🗓️ AGRI Tech Venture Forum: The AGRI Tech Venture Forum brings together global agtech leaders, investors, innovators and corporates to explore the latest in agtech. May 1-2nd, Toronto.

📌 Jobs

Check out the job board for newly posted roles from Canadian climate tech companies working on low-carbon housing, climate risk, carbon removal and more!

➡️ Hiring? List your posting here.

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Justin

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