Thank you, Madam Chair.
Good afternoon. I'm Rosaline Kwan, director general of the trade sectors bureau of the trade commissioner service at Global Affairs Canada. It's my pleasure to be here with you today. As a representative of Global Affairs Canada, please allow me to say a few words about the trade commissioner service, the TCS for short.
The TCS is a network of international business professionals who help Canadian businesses grow through international sales, commercial partnerships and investment. The TCS has over a thousand trade representatives working in over 160 cities around the world, including in offices across Canada, to help Canadian firms succeed in entering or expanding in international markets. Over a hundred of these trade commissioners have responsibilities that include supporting Canadian clean-technology firms.
Within the federal clean-tech ecosystem, the TCS is just one player in the wider ecosystem of clean-growth partners that includes colleagues who are with us here today: NRCan, ISED, ECCC, SDTC and our international trade portfolio partners EDC, BDC, CCC and Invest in Canada. We all work closely together to help start-ups and scale-ups of clean-tech firms. Witnesses here today are all part of the clean growth hub, a unique whole-of-government focal point for clean technology, dedicated to supporting Canadian companies to navigate federal programs and services.
As this committee has heard through the input of industry witnesses, domestic efforts to scale and finance clean-tech companies are key to increasing clean-tech exports, and we collaborate closely on this effort.
ISED supports Canadian clean-tech businesses through a number of programs and initiatives, including the strategic innovation fund and the recently announced net-zero accelerator. The strategic innovation fund has been a critical tool to growing Canada's economy while advancing Canada's green industrial strategy and transforming the economy for long-term, cleaner growth. The strategic innovation fund has invested over a billion dollars in large projects with a significant clean-tech component, and the net-zero accelerator will further drive investment to large emission-reducing and job-creating projects across every region of Canada.
Budget 2021 includes funding of $1 billion over five years to leverage private investment towards large, transformative clean-technology projects. This initiative will eliminate risk from decarbonization projects for traditional lenders, bring down the cost of capital and make many of these large-scale projects more economically feasible while decarbonizing the Canadian economy and creating new jobs.
Other partners I've mentioned include SDTC, which supports small businesses and start-ups in their commercialization efforts. As of March 2020, SDTC has provided $1.28 billion in funding to 447 projects. SDTC-supported companies have generated $2.7 billion in annual revenues, created more than 14,000 jobs and brought 126 new technologies to market, reducing greenhouse gas emissions by an estimated 19.3 megatonnes annually.
BDC has the only dedicated pan-Canadian clean-tech financing team, with Canada's largest clean-tech fund of $600 million. Through this team, BDC offers clean-tech entrepreneurs equity and financing solutions to support and accelerate their growth and operations. As of March 2021, $370 million has been committed.
NRCan helps Canadian companies develop new, innovative technologies and products to transition to a low-carbon future. The department also assists Canada's natural resources sectors, helping them to improve their efficiency, adopt clean technologies and develop our resources sustainably. NRCan has several clean-tech support programs and initiatives to support resource industries and value chains.
ECCC has policies, regulations and funding that spur the development and scale-up of our clean technologies domestically and abroad. ECCC helps Canadian exporters of environmental and clean-tech goods and services expand into foreign markets by leveraging ECCC's international environmental co-operation networks with foreign governments and stakeholders, and through its multilateral and bilateral initiatives, including environmental co-operation agreements or environment chapters of free trade agreements.
Canada's export credit agency, EDC, plays an important role in supporting Canadian exporters through the provision of innovative financial solutions. EDC is the largest provider of financial solutions for Canadian clean-tech companies looking to expand their businesses internationally. In 2020, EDC served 288 clean-tech companies and facilitated $4.6 billion in trade in the clean-tech space and close to $14 billion since 2012.
Canadian firms are leading the way in the development of the clean technologies the world is seeking. The environmental and clean-tech sector contributed $70.5 billion to GDP in 2019, provided more than 341,000 well-paying jobs and is growing faster than the rest of the economy.
The sector exported $13.5 billion of environmental and clean technology products in 2019, accounting for 1.8% of total Canadian exports. Three-quarters of these exports were destined for the United States. Europe, with $1.7 billion, and Asia, with $1.2 billion, were the other important markets for Canadian environmental and clean-tech products and services.
Canada's modern free trade agreements provide Canadian clean-tech companies advantages by eliminating tariffs, creating an equal playing field for service providers, improving labour mobility provisions, and expanding access to government procurement opportunities when applicable, among others.
For the trade commissioner service, promoting clean tech in global markets is a key priority, as you've heard from many of the witnesses through the sessions you've had, a priority supported by our clean-tech international business development strategy. This strategy was first announced in budget 2017 and renewed through budget 2021. It has proven successful at helping Canadian clean-tech firms tap into export opportunities and the rapidly growing pools of global climate finance. Since 2017, this strategy has helped generate more than $83 million in commercial successes by Canadian clean-tech firms, helping them to scale internationally.
Our trade commissioner service programming and services have supported hundreds of Canadian clean-tech firms across Canada to secure international research and development partnerships and diversify into global markets. Through our CanExport programs, we have provided $10 million to support over 260 clean-tech projects. Since 2019, our Canadian technology accelerator programs have supported over 85 of Canada's most promising clean-tech firms to improve their access to global markets.
The clean-tech sector represents significant opportunities for Canadian companies and the economy as a whole. The collaborative efforts of the TCS and all our partners in promoting clean technologies position Canadian workers and businesses to be among the leaders in the increasingly low-carbon global economy.
Thank you for the opportunity to join you today. We look forward to your questions.