Mr. Speaker, the Government of Canada is serious about reducing greenhouse gas emissions and as a result has already invested or committed about $1.5 billion to implement a broad based climate change action plan. When fully in place it is expected to take us about one third of the way to our Kyoto target.
Our approach is multi-faceted: to reduce energy consumption through conservation and greater energy efficiency; to promote investment in capital stock turnover toward cleaner industrial processes; to encourage the removal of CO
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from our atmosphere through natural carbon sinks and industrial sequestration; and to develop less carbon intensive power sources, including natural gas, hydroelectricity and others, as well as a growing portfolio of renewable and alternative energy supplies.
It is clear that to reduce greenhouse gas emissions we must develop and deploy innovative, new technologies. These new energy technologies are important to achieving sustainable development and social and economic goals.
Canada has a well respected capability and experience in energy research and development and in transferring leading edge technologies. Investment in energy efficiency, renewables, alternative and cleaner fossil fuel technologies are central to our efforts.
Indeed, the Minister of Natural Resources has just announced at Globe 2002 in Vancouver, eight new partnerships to develop and deploy innovative technologies to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions.
Canada's approach to energy research and development activities is focused on working in partnership with national and international clients and stakeholders to develop and deploy advanced energy technologies that have strong economic and environmental impacts. Partnership is a way of business for the Government of Canada.
Our plans address the transportation sector, upstream oil and gas production, electricity generation, the industrial sectors, residential and commercial buildings and communities. All of this is underpinned by determined efforts for innovation, the creation, dissemination and commercialization of new knowledge, the development and deployment of new technologies.
Natural Resources Canada is Canada's catalyst in energy science and technology, the key player in the network of public and private sector collaboration.
Today we are starting to see the payoff from decades of research, development and support in a wide range of energy technologies: better energy efficiency, new transportation technologies, a slate of renewable energy sources and new generation hydrocarbon based technologies.
NRCan's long term vision for Canada's energy future sees a Canada that enjoys: a sustainable Canadian hydrocarbon energy supply with reduced emissions of greenhouse gases; a dramatically increased contribution of renewable energy from biomass, wind, solar and small scale hydro to Canada's energy mix; elimination of noxious emissions, including greenhouse gases from large scale combustion, notably from coal, and viable technologies and techniques for cost effective CO
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capture and sequestration; fully integrated small scale energy conversion systems; a low emissions future transportation system; an eco-efficient processing sector in Canadian industry; ultra-efficient buildings with low life cycle impacts; and sustainable communities throughout Canada.
Canadian leadership in these energy areas would create new opportunities for economic development, new jobs, scientific sophistication and new trade potential. It would provide us with strategic global positioning by making Canada a place of excellence to whom the world would turn for the best energy and environmental solutions.
Like the decades of work that resulted in energy technologies we are seeing today, reaching this energy future would take years of patient research and development in a wide variety of potential technologies. NRCan is committed to working with its public and private sector partners and through available S&T programs to develop and deploy the technologies we need to fulfill our vision for tomorrow. We can be confident about these future technologies.
Let me offer a few examples that illustrate some of the exciting advances Canada is making and our resolve to meet our climate change objectives. Fuel cell technology is one such illustration. Canada is in the forefront of this revolutionary field of research and development, which could reshape the automobile industry and slash emissions in the transportation sector. Today NRCan is working to develop the fuel cell infrastructure, like the network of gas and service stations. NRCan is partnering on the development of technologies for hydrogen production, utilization, safety and storage and is managing a program to demonstrate a variety of fuel cell vehicle fueling facilities.
A Canadian company is a world leader in the development of technologies for the production of biomass ethanol, a renewable, virtually CO
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neutral transportation fuel. For more than 15 years, NRCan has supported the development of Canadian biomass to ethanol technology, an investment that has brought the process from the idea stage past the demonstration phase and today to the brink of commercialization.
NRCan is focusing on ways to improve industrial energy efficiency through work on advanced industrial products, processes and systems, advanced combustion technologies, process integration, intelligent sensors and controls, and bioprocessing technologies.
Canada's climate extremes have made this country a world leader in housing and energy efficient building technologies, both in retrofitting and new construction. NRCan's work in this area has led to heating, ventilation and air conditioning technologies and construction techniques that use almost half the energy and emit significantly less carbon dioxide.
Solar energy is another promising area. Canadian innovations like the Solarwall for ventilation air heating and the EnerWorks water heating system have broken new ground, cutting both emissions and energy supply costs.
On another technological front, Canadian scientists and our private sector are perfecting the best techniques to capture CO
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from our atmosphere and store it benignly and permanently underground in older oil fields and deep coal seams.
NRCan is leading in the development of oil sands technology that will make development cheaper and easier, working on, for example, improved bitumen extraction processes that reduce tailings, save energy, cut emissions of greenhouse gases, extract more bitumen and recover process water and reuse it.
NRCan is working on technologies to negate environmental problems, notably greenhouse gas emissions and air pollutants from fossil fuel production, as well as technologies to improve our ability and the economics of tapping into existing and new fossil fuel sources, particularly coal. In fact, NRCan's national laboratory in Bell's Corners, just west of here, is leading the national program of research in advanced combustion and conversion of fuels to cleaner sources of energy.
Although closing the combustion cycle is still a distant goal, progress is being made in reducing emissions from fossil fuel combustion. Emerging technologies include new forms of power generation such as natural gas combined cycle plants and advanced fluidized bed combustion.
These are some of the many innovative technologies the Government of Canada is supporting. Clearly we are making progress but we know we must do more. Our vision is to continue to develop technologies that support sustainable energy production and consumption for Canadians now and into the future.
By developing new technologies that mitigate climate change for future generations we create opportunities for new businesses, new jobs, new economic sophistication and new trade potential from Canada's rich energy endowment. By transforming how we generate and use energy, move people and materials, heat our homes and operate our industries and businesses, Canadian technology is a forerunner in addressing the challenges associated with climate change, not only for today but for tomorrow.