Overview: Double Or Trouble

In every corner of the country, Canadians are engaging more with climate action. In 2023, one in 10 passenger cars sold was an electric vehicle (EV), and a fifth of those sales required no government subsidy. We bought more heat pumps, too, than in all previous years put together, as sales of these emissions-free devices overtook natural gas furnace sales for the first time.

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Why We Wrote This

RBC launched the Climate Action Institute in 2023 to support Canadians in our collective journey to Net Zero, with a commitment to inform, engage and act on all aspects of the climate challenge. In our first year, our team published 20 research papers, on topics ranging from electricity regulations to mass timber. We’ve engaged with governments, industries and community groups, to share insights and ideas. We’ve heard and learned from Canadians at the forefront of climate change. And we’ve helped launch two groups—the Canadian Alliance for Net Zero Agrifood and the Climate Smart Buildings Alliance—to help develop private sector strategies to reduce emissions.

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John Stackhouse
Senior Vice-President, Office of the CEO

SECTORS

Oil and Gas

Why reining in methane may be the cheapest and fastest way to cut oil and gas emissions

Transportation

More than half a million EVs are on Canadian roads. That number needs to grow exponentially by 2030

Buildings

Governments and early adopters have driven heat pump adoption. Now comes the hard part

Electricity

Despite the wind power surge, Canada’s struggling to meet its goals for the renewable energy source

Heavy Industry

How Alberta became a magnet for green chemicals investments

Agriculture

The world is eyeing novel solutions to power carbon market. Canada needs to catch up

Ideas For 2024

As Canada enters the middle third of this critical decade — “the decisive decade,” as the 2020s have been called—more pragmatic ideas can get us closer to our climate goals.

Many of these ideas will require more collaboration, between governments and industries, and within sectors and networks. History has taught us that large-scale and rapid transformation can’t happen without networks and a collective will to look and think beyond boundaries. Emissions, after all, have little regard for boundaries. So, too, should the next chapter of climate action.

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MORE INFO

About

Read our methodology and about the team behind Climate Action 2024

RBC Climate Action Institute

The Institute aims to inspire Canada’s Net Zero journey

Latest Research

Canada’s Energy Transformation: An Outlook Of Supply And Demand In The 2030s