VICTORIA — Mark Zacharias, executive director of Clean Energy Canada, made the following statement in response to 18 resource projects that the province of B.C. announced it will be fast-tracking in order to reduce its reliance on trade with the United States.
“There’s nothing like a crisis to catalyze change. After years of talking about getting projects built faster, the B.C. government has identified 18 energy and mining projects it intends to accelerate through the regulatory process.
“This project list is a thoughtful balance of efforts to electrify projects that would otherwise be powered by fossil fuels and getting new mines and mine expansions off of the ground.
“In the face of instability with our largest trading partner, now is the time to get projects built that provide good jobs, build new export opportunities, and seize on the province’s twin advantages of affordable clean electricity and its gateway to Asian and Western U.S. markets.
“While it may be tempting to look at U.S. President Donald Trump’s recent executive orders on energy and climate and extrapolate that this is where the world is headed, the truth is that the global economy is on a starkly different path.
“The world now invests almost twice as much in clean energy as it does in fossil fuels. Global energy investment is set to exceed US$3 trillion for the first time in 2024, with $2 trillion going to clean energy technologies and infrastructure. Investment in clean energy has accelerated since 2020, and spending on renewable power, electricity grids and storage is now higher than total spending on oil, gas and coal.
“The smart move for B.C. is to get projects built in sectors seeing and projecting the most growth.”
