Pushing the private sector to develop clean technology — and heavy emitters to adopt it — is where billions in new money will flow from the Liberals‘ 2021 Canada budget pledge to tackle climate change.
Around $17 billion is promised in the years ahead to promote a “green” recovery out of the COVID-19 pandemic and create jobs.
Included in that is $5 billion more into a fund meant for projects used by industry to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.
The government says that will be spread out over seven years and is on top of the $3 billion announced last year when the Liberals unveiled their plan to reach net-zero emissions by 2050.
Another measure targeting heavy emitters is a new tax incentive to encourage companies to adopt technology that traps carbon dioxide into the ground from fuel combustion instead of seeing it released into the atmosphere.
The government says it will soon begin consultations on designing a tax credit for capital spent on carbon capture and storage technology in hopes of increasing how many million tonnes Canada traps annually.