Renewable Resources In Canada

We once lived in a world lush and plentiful where we enjoyed all the natural resources peacefully. However at the beginning of the industrial revolution more people moved to the cities therefore increasing their dependency load. Fastforward to today and the world has seen a drastic change in the loss of natural resources as well as a number of health related illnesses like asthma. This is mainly due to the effects from carbon pollution, greenhouse gases and global warming. Canada as a country is thought of as environmentally aware and progressive. Actually has many issues regarding this topic and if it is not taken care of it will affect the future of the nation. I care about this topic because it has to

The reason this question has to be answered is simple, Canada sits at a very important junction in its evolution; does it continue to push forward to become an energy superpower or does it let the environmental conversation win, pushing forward instead with a clean energy agenda? This essay will hopefully drive this conversation forward.

For the last two decades, the increased use of fossil energy caused the environmental problems. The evidence of global warming, like drying rivers, extinction of species, melting of glaciers, became more often around the planet. The climate change became a threat to healthy environment and prosperity of humanity and wildlife, and the world community started searching for solution to combat climate change. In 2008 British Columbia introduced carbon tax on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to reduce global warming. Starting from $10 per tonne of CO2, the price was increasing annually till it reached $30 per tonne in 2012. During that period British Columbia was reducing harmful emissions and improving economy comparing to the rest of Canada. However, since the price rise on carbon stopped in 2012, no improving changes in cutting emissions, economy, and overall quality of life have been noticed. In this essay I will persuade that British Columbia should continue gradually increase price on carbon tax to the level where it will significantly cut the use of dirty energy, provide enough investments into the green projects, and support low-income families.

The government of Nova Scotia has made policies to reach certain environmental standards in energy production through the Environmental Goals and Prosperity Act, passed in 2007. These targets include

Modern day Canada is posed with the current issues of energy and the environment becoming increasingly important within the public and political sectors. The impetus has come from a variety of factors such as the collective development of nonconventional resources, the environmental concern of Canadians, and the demand for renewable energy sources. Many premiers have since called for a ‘national energy strategy’ however the governments tendency to avoid national approaches to energy allows no progression to be made. This has become largely apparent in the current debates over Alberta’s bitumen deposits. The Alberta government has advocated for a ‘national energy strategy’ led by Ottawa placing their political emphasis on the need for Canada to achieve a vision of environmental supremacy. This paper seeks to investigate the clashes of interprovincial trade and commerce powers with the provinces natural resource power debates over Alberta’s bitumen deposits in conjunction with the general Canadians feeling of a lack of democracy.

Canada has the potential to be a “sustainable energy superpower” due to the vast amount of resources it contains. It has a large landmass and diversified geography which can be used to produce renewable energy from such resources; watermill, wind, biomass, solar, geothermal, and ocean energy. Renewable energy is energy obtained from natural resources that are able to be naturally replenished within a human lifespan (Natural Resource Canada, 2014). Currently, fossil fuel burning is the major source of energy in Canada and although it can be re-used, the process is so long that it is considered to be non-renewable. Also, fossil fuel burning for coal, natural gas, and petroleum gas pollutes the environment with greenhouse gases on a large scale, causing global warming. Non-renewable energy is taken from sources that re available on Earth in limited quantity, likely vanishing within fifty to sixty years from today (Conserve Energy Future, 2014). Thus, it is important for Canada to invest their money on resorting to more environmentally friendly and renewable ways to make electricity. Being a developed country, Canada has the financial stability to purchase the technologies over time in order to produce renewable energy. In addition, many organizations and the government have taken a step to educate the society about issues regarding energy usage, and to create programs which conserve energy for the future. In the future generations, Canada will be able to generate sufficient

Ontario has its own creative and effective strategies to combat climate change. One of Ontario’s goal is a low-carbon future. To accomplish this the province started making carbon reductions in 1990 and are on track to reduce carbon emissions by 15% in 2020, 37 per cent in 2030 and 80 per cent in 2050 (Climate Change Action Plan, 2017). Ontario’s target of reducing emissions by 6% was met on schedule in 2014 (Climate Change Action Plan, 2017). One of the reasons this has been made possible is because of Ontario’s investment in carbon reduction. For example, in 2015 Ontario committed $325-million payment to Ontario’s Green Investment Fund to support programs that help households and businesses implement

"Transitioning to a Cleaner Future, a Greener Economy" is exceptionally very much tended to by NDP in their platform by expressing that "Canada can no longer afford to stand on the sidelines when it comes to tackling catastrophic climate change and transitioning to a cleaner, greener economy “ .Accordingly, they guaranteed a key ventures $1.5 billion to handle environmental change, decreasing water contamination, enhancing vitality security etcetera. In their stage they have expressed sustainable development as the main right decision for Canada to guarantee long haul success as a country in an

This memorandum provides a summary of the environmental and political background of Ontario’s greenhouse gas emissions. It specifies the varying impacts of climate change as a result of increases in GHG emissions and gives examples of how and where these impacts are being felt in Canada. As a large contributor to Canada’s overall GHG emissions, Ontario should provide regulations and policies to mitigate these emissions. A variety of policy instruments will be examined to determine which is most appropriate for the current situation. A recommendation of which policy instrument should be employed will be made with an analysis on its advantages and disadvantages, as well as its overall feasibility.

This country is also in the top five in aluminum, diamond, cobalt and etc. The Canadian government has capitalized on its natural resources and the wealth they generate and help give Canadians a quality of life. Natural resources account for nearly up to 20 percent of Canada’s gross domestic products and 50 percent of our exports. On top of that, the natural resource sector creates about 10 percent of all jobs in Canada. All this energy consumption helps sustain our economy growth and our standards of living.

Ontario is looking to partner with First Nation communities to ensure a transition to non-fossil fuel energy that will minimize the impact on the communities. This can potentially be done through investments in energy efficiency, micro-grids and renewable energy. Remote communities will be connected to the provincial electricity grid through the partnership of the federal government and First Nations. Renewable energy such as biomass, solar and waterpower will be the focus of the projects. A fund will be established for community-level greenhouse gas pollution reduction projects and for community energy and climate action planning. Jobs will be established among post-secondary institutions that are low-carbon along with training partnerships. This initiative

But Saskatchewan, another province with a natural resource-based economy, does not share Alberta’s enthusiasm. Saskatchewan has refused to sign the Framework and has openly opposed a carbon tax, stating that it will damage its economy and make it less competitive (Rayner, Hurlbert, Eisler & Marshall, 2017). Saskatchewan argues that a better method to reduce emissions is through carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology. It has invested roughly $1.5 billion on CCS in its Boundary Dam coal-fired generator, which “successfully” removed 90% of carbon emissions from the plant (Rayner, Hurlbert, Eisler & Marshall, 2017). SaskPower also plans to increase the share of renewable energy sources to 50% of total energy generation by 2030 (Rayner, Hurlbert, Eisler & Marshall, 2017).

The fact that 86% of our energy comes from nonrenewable, polluting, costly fossil fuels and only 14% is renewable is diabolical. Why must we harm our environment to contribute to our energy production when renewable energy sources are so abundantly present so that we may be symbiotic with nature? To lessen our environmental impact and be able to avoid the high expenses of non-renewable fossil fuels in the near future it should be obvious that we start to use more renewable energy sources than we do nonrenewable resources for apparent reasons. It’s the only answer, as we have already contributed to the now unstoppable melt of the glaciers in Antarctica soon to raise the sea level, according to scientist, four feet higher (Coghlan "Collapse of Antarctic Glaciers").

Fossil Fuels have been a point of concern among environmentalist due to its harmful effects on the environment. The potential for alternative energy has been thoroughly studied concerning the use of forest biomass. Replacing fuels with biomass could reduce our foreign dependence on petroleum and minimize CO2 emissions. When considering the benefits "forest biomass can provide a domestic energy resource, create local jobs and provide financial incentives to forest owners" Studies have shown that biomass supply "ranging from 4.2-15.1 million metric tons/yr used in the most efficient current technology, forest biomass energy would constitute 1.4-5.5% of the entire region's current energy consumption". The region's size, population and energy consumption would determine the greater or lesser benefit, which would be received by the use of biomass. The use of biomass would also create jobs around the world, due to the fact that it

The continued reliance on fossil fuels over the centuries has led to these resources being almost completely exhausted. Furthermore, their use has had extremely negative effects on the environment, namely pollution and global warming as a result of the build-up of greenhouse gases. It is therefore essential to consider alternative, cleaner energy sources. It was decided that six renewable energy sources should be researched in order to determine which are most suitable for use in the West of Scotland.