Pipeline problems

NEWS

Pipeline problems

What happened: New east-west pipelines are back in the spotlight as a way to diversify Canadian energy exports in response to U.S. tariffs.

Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith floated the idea earlier this month, and Quebec Premier François Legault suggested Quebec could be open to new pipeline projects.

The context: Canada currently exports most of its oil to the States, creating a dependence on U.S. energy policy. Past efforts to diversify by building pipelines to Canada’s east and west coasts like Energy East and Northern Gateway were cancelled due to environmental opposition, regulatory hurdles, and fluctuating oil prices.

Oil and gas companies say they have no plans to revive these projects without major policy changes like scrapping the oil and gas emissions cap and carbon tax, and overhauling environmental assessments.

Why it matters: It’s a pivotal moment as Canada determines its future with an America First administration south of the border. Expanding export markets for oil and gas might address the current crisis, but risks investing billions in infrastructure that could be obsolete by the time it’s built. The IEA expects demand for oil and gas to peak by 2030 and drop by 45% by 2050, right as new pipelines would be coming online.

The bottom line: Canada will need to walk a tightrope between mitigating short-term impacts while making the investments needed to be ready for the longer-term energy transition.

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CLIMATE CAPITAL

⚡️ Hydrostor secured $200 million to accelerate its global portfolio of energy storage projects. The round included Canada Growth Fund, Goldman Sachs Alternatives, and CPP Investments. Hydrostor is developing long-duration energy storage systems using compressed air in Canada, the U.S. and Australia.

🔋 Grengine received $1.5 million in funding from the federal government to scale up manufacturing of their battery energy storage tech.

⛽️ StormFisher Hydrogen secured a $50 million private equity investment from Hy24 to produce clean fuels for industrial sectors. The funding will accelerate its clean fuel projects in the U.S. and Canada.

⛏️ Canada Nickel secured $3.4 million from the feds to pilot its In-Process Tailings (IPT) Carbonation process that leverages nickel mining tailings for permanent carbon storage.

💰️ Alberta announced almost $55 million in funding for 15 projects for industrial decarbonization. Recipients include $3.7 million for Flash Forest’s drone-based tree planting and $4.1 million for Future Fields’ sustainable protein production.

🪨 Natural Resources Canada announced $10.8 million to fund carbon capture and storage research, including a U of T project to regenerate direct air carbon capture liquid.

MILESTONES & PRODUCT

🥶 Mississauga-based TerraVis Energy says it’s developed a heat pump that can operate at -50C while eliminating defrost cycles. The company hasn’t released technical details, but it could make heat pumps more attractive for very cold climates.

🔌 SWTCH Energy will deliver 2,500 EV chargers to real estate company Greystar across Washington state. The project is backed by $25.6M from Washington’s Department of Commerce. 

☀️ Canadian Solar signed a deal with Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners to deploy 960 MWh of battery storage systems in Australia. 

🚀 Waterloo’s Accelerator Centre will launch a new “Sustainable Development” cohort of its AC:Studio program for startups working on reducing carbon emissions.

🦾 The University of Waterloo also landed $5M to create the Consortium for Sustainable Scale-up in Metal Additive Manufacturing, aimed at growing advanced manufacturing in Ontario while making it more sustainable.

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IN THE NEWS

📊 Carbon budget: Toronto adopted its first budget with a carbon budget process. The new process asks the city’s departments and agencies to put forward recommended actions to reduce carbon emissions for inclusion in the city’s budget. The process brings climate action into the budgeting process and introduced measures that will reduce more than 244,000 tonnes of CO2 per year. 

⛏️ Beyond extraction: Canada needs to build out processing facilities, not just stockpile critical minerals, to truly protect national energy interests according to mining stakeholders. Some have called for strategic mineral reserves to protect against threats from the U.S. to annex Canada for its natural resources. But processing plants are needed to keep minerals in Canada and build out a new industrial ecosystem rather than simply exporting to new markets.

📉 Northvolt write-down: Investment Management Corp. of Ontario, Ontario’s public sector pension fund, wrote down the value of its $400 million investment in Northvolt since the battery-maker declared bankruptcy. Multiple Canadian pension funds have investments in the firm, while several European funds already wrote down their investments

🏦 ESG goes underground: Republican backlash against ESG investing and Canadian banks exiting global alliances are making headlines. But behind the scenes, investors still care about portfolio companies hitting their ESG goals. Firms say they’ll be quieter about their efforts to minimize legal risk, but will continue to work with portfolio companies on climate efforts.

BIG PICTURE

Finland’s first green hydrogen plant starts up

The EU sets March deadline to introduce 2040 climate targets

Investments in clean industry dropped in 2024

JPMorgan launches new climate intel unit

BYD steps in to supply carbon credits to Europe’s carmakers

The working capital playbook for climate tech

Africa’s top cotton grower invests in clean energy to meet new EU rules

U.S. EPA head wants to cancel $20B in funding for Biden-era green banks

COMMUNITY

🚀 GreenShoots: Hosted by Invest Nova Scotia, the GreenShoots accelerator is looking for early stage agtech and bioeconomy companies in Nova Scotia. Apply by Feb 28th.

🗓️ Removing Carbon, Healing the Ocean: ​Join me in Ottawa for an in-depth conversation with Mike Kelland, co-founder of Planetary Technologies, to explore the world of ocean-based carbon removal. Feb 20th, Ottawa.

➡️ Discover more climate events.

💻️ Carbon Upcycling is hiring multiple roles across Construction, Operations, and Mechanical Engineering to expand its low-carbon concrete solution.

➡️ Find more open roles.