The Trottier Challenges

The Trottier Energy Futures Project has identified 11 key challenges to be addressed on the road to a sustainable, low-carbon future. Each of the challenges expands the range of low-carbon solutions and helps build a deeper understanding of how Canadians can get the energy services they want and need, with drastically lower greenhouse gas emissions. daisy_wheel

Challenge #1: Toward Net Zero Buildings

The green building movement is driving and being driven by a wave of design and technological innovation that is changing the way we think about the places we live and work. The LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design)-certified buildings…

Challenge #2: Decarbonizing Electricity and the Future of the Grid

More extensive electrification, combined with decarbonization of the electricity supply, is an essential component of a low-carbon energy future. Electricity use is more efficient than fuel use, there are no emissions at the point of end use, and the electrification…

Challenge #3: Bioenergy and the Bioeconomy in a Low-Carbon Canada

An expanded role for bioenergy is an essential feature of any low-carbon energy future. Even with maximum efforts to shift energy production from fuels to electricity and decarbonize the electricity supply, Canada will need large volumes of liquid fuel, and…

Challenge #4: Canada’s Fossil Fuel Industry in a Low-Carbon World

As an oil and gas exporter, Canada faces special challenges in mapping out a low-carbon energy future. Fossil fuels (oil, natural gas, and coal) account for 82% of the country’s greenhouse gas emissions, and industry’s emissions today exceed Canada’s entire…

Challenge #5: Supply Chains and Goods Movement

Goods movement by rail, ship, air, and (primarily) road accounts for 13% of Canada’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and the sector’s fuel consumption has grown faster in recent years than any other part of the Canadian economy, apart from fossil…

Challenge #6: Low-Carbon Access and Personal Transportation

Private cars are by far the largest source of demand for liquid fuels. While the development of efficient, next-generation vehicles is a technology issue, demand for personal mobility is driven by the deeper need for access to employment, education, shopping,…

Challenge #7: The Energy-Intensive Industries

After fossil fuels and electricity, Canada’s most energy-intensive industries are mining, iron and steel, primary metals smelting, industrial chemicals, cement, and pulp and paper. Their processing plants are often very large and, in many parts of the country, a single…

Challenge #8: General Manufacturing and Integrative Industrial Design

For most general manufacturing and service businesses, greenhouse gas emissions are determined largely by the energy needs of the buildings they occupy, and by the fuel and electricity consumption of the equipment they purchase, from boilers and motors to office…

Challenge #9: Education and Training

The transition to a low-carbon energy future will depend on targeted training for the professions and trades that will lead the introduction of new technologies and processes. Key priorities include: Schools of engineering, architecture, and design, and in disciplines as…

Challenge #10: Finance and Investment in the Low-Carbon Future

Investors will have an important role to play as the elements of a low-carbon energy future take shape. Financial professionals will need a wider base of knowledge to help their clients or organizations assess and make knowledgeable decisions on potential…

Challenge #11: Industrial Strategy and Canada’s Clean Technology Sector

What if low-carbon energy futures were understood as a cornerstone of Canada’s next industrial strategy? Carbon reduction is usually framed as a matter of energy, environmental, or science policy, even when its proponents see significant investment, wealth generation, and job…