Climate Crunch

➔ Climate-tech funding perks up

➔ Nuclear ramps up

➔ Got eco-friendly milk?

Hot takes

➔ Canadian climate technology companies raised $468 million in Q1. That’s upfrom a paltry $39 million during the same period last year. It’s a bright beginning to the year following a sluggish period of investment from Q2-Q4 2024. First quarter funding in 2025 was mostly driven by energy storage and clean power deals. While the overall rise in climate technology funding is encouraging, additional investments in industrial innovation—beyond the $36 million raised to date this year from a single deal—will be critical in decarbonizing hard-to-abate industrial sectors.

➔ Speaking of funding, Canada will need more foreign capital to realize its commodity ambitions. More than 100 mineral projects worth $107 billion, are at various stages of development in Canada over the next ten years, according to research by RBC’s Cynthia Leach, Shaz Merwat and Vivan Sorab. With Chinese investment in minerals effectively blocked by Ottawa, Canadian miners would need to tap a variety of countries such as those in America and Europe and institutions such as Middle East sovereign wealth funds, to emerge as a commodity powerhouse. Read the full report here. Also watch RBC analysts talk minerals.

➔ After all the talk, nuclear is finally ramping up. A new U.S. executive order aims to speed up new nuclear plant applications within 18 months—and quadruple nuclear power generation in 25 years. Belgium is scrapping its nuclear phase-out law, while EU members Germany, Denmark, and Italy are reconsidering their stances on nuclear. Ontario also kickstarted a nuclear modular reactor in May. But New Brunswick is delaying its small modular reactor (SMR) plans after its two partners failed to raise capital and hire workers. Ambition is fine, but the challenge is finding the money and the people to execute.

INFRASTRUCTURE

Build, Baby, Build—But Also Wait

Lofty ambitions, meet ground realities.Despite a reset, Canada’s plans to build new clean and conventional energy projects are running up against familiar obstacles, such as stringent environmental rules and lack of Indigenous consent. Both are critical considerations that should not supersede national interest.

Provinces that stitched together new laws in a hurry are being asked to wait:

• Ontario’s Bill 5, which is set to become law, gives the provincial government wide powers to allocate projects to “trusted proponents” in special economic zones. The Canadian Civil Liberties Association calls it an “alarming move,” that they say gives the government the authority to unilaterally scrap legal safeguards that protect vulnerable communities and some Indigenous people.

• Worried about the surge in mining activity, First Nations in Ontario’s Ring of Fire region are demanding the bill be struck down. Mining claims at the Ring of Fire have shot up 67% since 2022, with just under 43,000 claims covering an area 14 times the size of Toronto city, according to Wildlands League.

• In British Columbia, which is hoping to be an LNG and commodity hub, the government narrowly passed the Infrastructure Projects Act (the Speaker had to break the tie) aimed at fast-tracking projects, amid opposition from B.C. Assembly of First Nations, municipalities and environmental organizations.

• Anishinabek Nation Regional Chief Scott McLeod said a national plan to advance projects without input could trigger another “Idle No More” movement.

What are the chances of the federal government facing similar headwinds as it embarks on pushing through a new wave of major projects? The NDP and Bloc Quebecois are already gearing up for a fight. For now, the momentum is with the “Build” crowd.

RBC’s John Stackhouse who wasin Quebec and British Columbia recently, says attitudes towards resource development, and oil and gas exports, are shifting. (Read John’s full briefing from Quebec and B.C. here).

But as Prime Minister Mark Carney and the premiers thrash out a plan and prepare a “national interest” bill, here’s what’s on their to-do-list:

• Indigenous consent will be needed and will take time, especially under B.C.’s commitment to the UN Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The First Ministers’ statement after their meeting acknowledges those challenges.

• Premier Danielle Smith wants nine “terrible” federal policies, such as the proposed oil and gas emissions cap and tanker ban on B.C.’s northern coast, which she believes discouraged investment. How will policymakers balance their economic and environmental commitments?

• Industrial carbon pricing remains another point of contention as it makes Canadian gas exports less competitive, but advance’s the country’s climate goals.

• First Ministers’ focus on “decarbonized oil and gas pipelines” is another interesting proposition and would require leaning on carbon capture technology.

• Building cleaner and more affordable electricity systems to ensure net-zero by 2050 could also spark activity in several industries such as steel, lumber and aluminum that have been deeply disrupted by U.S. tariffs.

Trends, tech and science

Got eco-friendly milk? It appears consumers can’t have all three—nutrition, low emissions and water conservation—when picking milk. Good old-fashioned dairy is the most emissions- and water-intensive but also the most nutritious, according to a World Resources Institute study. Almond appears to be the greatest disappointment: consuming almost as much water as dairy but is rather unwholesome. The winner appears to be the lesser-known pea milk.

Canadian cleantech remains a man’s world. Women were paid 17% less than men in 2023 in the environmental and cleantech (ECT) space—more pronounced than the 12.8% wage deficit women face in the overall Canadian economy, Statistics Canada data shows. Even though women in the industry (41.6%) were almost twice as likely as men (24.6%) to have a university diploma or degree. Overall, 7 in 10 jobs were held by men in a sector that represents 1.7% of all Canadian jobs in 2023.

A garbage truck’s worth of plastic enters the ocean every minute.That catastrophe is what makes Ocean with David Attenborough compellingviewing (now out in cinemas). “In front of us is a chance to protect our climate, our food, our home,” said Attenborough, the famed 99-year-old biologist. Oceans absorb 30% of CO2 emissions from human activities, yet only 2.4% of oceans are protected—compared to the global pledge to protect 30% of the ocean by 2030. The UN, which is hosting a conference on oceans next week in Nice, France, notes that of its 17 Sustainable Development Goals, protecting “Life Below Water,” remains the most underfunded.

The Institute In Action

• In British Columbia, John Stackhouse joined a meeting between the Greater Vancouver Board of Trade and Calgary Chamber to discuss Canada’s role in global natural gas exports.

• Myha Truong-Regan attended the Walrus Talks, Power Economy: Using Electricity to Change Cities, Homes, and Industry recently, to hear seven climate thought leaders and practitioners argue why the future is and must be electric.

• Varun Srivatsan spoke to an audience at the Saskatchewan First Nations Energy Forum last week on equity financing and the importance of capacity, capital and consent to resource development.

On the team’s reading list

• Fantasyland, a 500-year history of “How America Went Haywire” by Kurt Andersen. Read John’s review here.

• Hotshot: A Life On Fire by River Selby, on wildfires and insights on U.S. federal fire policy, Indigenous land use and ecological history.

• Is A River Alive? by Robert Macfarlane, tracks flowing water in Ecuador, India and Canada.

• Who is government: The Untold Story of Public Service, by Michael Lewis, explores the vast complexity of American bureaucracy.