What happens when the world\u2019s largest economy decides it wants to be a leader in tackling climate change?<\/p>\n
We\u2019re about to find out.<\/p>\n
For years, the only headlines about China and climate change were about the fast-developing country\u2019s intransigence at international climate change negotiations, or the rate at which it was building carbon-spewing coal-fired power plants.<\/p>\n
Today it\u2019s a very different story.<\/p>\n
In tandem with the United States, China \u2014 the world\u2019s largest carbon polluter \u2014 has\u00a0already ratified<\/a>\u00a0the climate change agreement reached in Paris at the end of 2015. And by July 2017, China\u00a0plans<\/a>\u00a0to launch a cap-and-trade system not unlike that between Ontario, Quebec and California. Ultimately, China anticipates\u00a0spending<\/a>\u00a0USD$6.6 trillion to deliver on its climate change commitment.<\/p>\n This creates a huge opportunity for Canada to make exporting climate change solutions \u2014 clean energy and other energy efficient, low-carbon technologies and services related to water, agriculture and urbanization \u2014 a priority in its trade with China.<\/p>\n No doubt part of China\u2019s confidence in its climate change commitments stems from its success in deploying huge amounts of renewable electricity. As documented in\u00a0A Year for the Record Books,<\/em>\u00a0<\/em><\/a>US$325 billion was invested in renewable power in 2015, and fully one-third of that investment \u2014 US$110 billion \u2014 was in China. That investment delivered China 10 times more new renewable power capacity than natural gas-fired power, and 3 times more than coal-fired power.<\/p>\n And there\u2019s no sign that China is going to ease off in its pursuit of clean, renewable power to feed its voracious energy demand. Instead, demand will only increase, as China\u00a0pursues a goal<\/a>\u00a0of putting 5 million \u201cnew energy\u201d vehicles \u2014 which includes electric vehicles, plug-in hybrids\u00a0and fuel-cell vehicles \u2014on the road by 2020. With a rapidly growing middle class clamoring for personal vehicles and cities already choked by smog, emission-free vehicles are getting a big push from the Chinese government. Clearly, there\u2019s opportunity for the central Canadian transportation industry to benefit.<\/p>\n All this translates into one big takeaway for Canadian policy-makers and business leaders: the market opportunity for Canadian energy and expertise to China is by no means restricted to oil or liquefied natural gas. In fact, the market prospects for those fossil fuels\u00a0may not live up<\/a>\u00a0to current expectations. Meantime, providing clean energy technology and service solutions has great potential.<\/p>\n As the world\u2019s largest producer of wind and solar electricity, China is expected to raise its power storage capacity\u00a010-fold<\/a>\u00a0by 2020. It just so happens that Canada is home to a number of innovative power storage companies, such as NRStor Inc. The reality is, for a Canadian company to scale-up, it has to play outside Canada\u2019s borders. As former Home Depot Canada and now NRStor Inc. CEO Annette Verschuren has noted<\/a>, \u201cCanada has a chance to add a new dimension to its energy economy \u2014 one that is clean, profitable and globally groundbreaking.\u201d<\/p>\n So it\u2019s good news that Prime Minister Trudeau has made it a priority to reinvigorate Canada\u2019s relationship with China, as evidenced from his visit to China to his recent hosting of Chinese Premier Li Keqiang in Ottawa. While many Canadians have some misgivings about our relationship with China, supporting Chinese efforts to reduce carbon pollution is, I imagine, something that most Canadians would encourage.<\/p>\n People often assume that Canadian companies will struggle to gain a foothold in China, but the evidence doesn\u2019t bear that out. Canadian Solar \u2014 the second largest solar module manufacturer in the world \u2014has manufacturing plants and solar projects in China. Hydrogenics Corp., a developer and manufacturer of hydrogen generation and fuel cell products, has signed supply agreements with several Chinese electric vehicle integrators to bring its fuel cell and fuelling station technology to China. And earlier this year, Canada\u2019s Global Acceleration Partners \u2014 a Canadian investment company \u2014 teamed up<\/a>\u00a0with the Shanghai Advanced Research Institute and the Chinese Academy of Sciences\u00a0to form the Institute for Clean Technology, which aims to commercialize energy and environment solutions related to lowering carbon emissions or converting them into a productive feedstock.<\/p>\n Now Canada must make exporting clean energy technologies and services a trade priority \u2014 in China and beyond. From the United States\u2019\u00a0Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Export Initiative<\/a> to approaches taken by Germany, Israel and the Nordic countries, there are models we can adapt and adopt for Canada. Canadian companies need to better understand where the market opportunities in China lie, and get solid advice and support to capitalize upon them. The federal government can lend a hand.<\/p>\n As Prime Minister Trudeau said while in China<\/a>, \u201cWe know that a stronger and deeper relationship with China is essential if we are to achieve our own objectives.\u201d Increased trade with China in clean energy technologies and services is an opportunity to do just that\u2014and it helps satisfy Canada\u2019s economic and environmental objectives.<\/p>\n Photo: XiXinXing\u00a0\/ Shutterstock.com<\/p>\n This article is part of the\u00a0Canada-China Relations Special Feature<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n Do you have something to say about the article you just read? Be part of the\u00a0<\/em>Policy Options\u00a0discussion, and send in your own submission.\u00a0Here is a\u00a0<\/em>link<\/em><\/a>\u00a0on how to do it. <\/em>|\u00a0Souhaitez-vous r\u00e9agir \u00e0 cet article ? <\/em>Joignez-vous aux d\u00e9bats d\u2019<\/em>Options politiques\u00a0et soumettez-nous votre texte en suivant ces\u00a0<\/em>directives<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" What happens when the world\u2019s largest economy decides it wants to be a leader in tackling climate change? We\u2019re about to find out. For years, the only headlines about China and climate change were about the fast-developing country\u2019s intransigence at international climate change negotiations, or the rate at which it was building carbon-spewing coal-fired power […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":251811,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","ep_exclude_from_search":false,"apple_news_api_created_at":"2025-10-08T01:18:01Z","apple_news_api_id":"a87979b6-4d30-4703-878e-d8e1edf8cd60","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2025-10-08T01:18:02Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAD\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/w==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/AqHl5tk0wRwOHjtjh7fjNYA","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false},"categories":[9361,9360,9372],"tags":[8404,8560],"article-status":[],"irpp-category":[4217,4327,4261],"section":[],"irpp-tag":[7092,7095],"class_list":["post-264416","issues","type-issues","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-environnement","category-international","category-recent-stories-fr","tag-china-fr","tag-clean-energy-fr","irpp-category-affaires-internationales","irpp-category-energie","irpp-category-environnement","irpp-tag-chine","irpp-tag-energie-propre"],"acf":[],"apple_news_notices":[],"yoast_head":"\n
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