The New Reality

The future of Canadian energy looks bright, with clean energy job growth projected to outpace losses in fossil fuels amid a shifting global landscape

Key Takeaways

  • In 2020, Canada’s clean energy sector employed 430,500 people. By 2030, that number is projected to grow almost 50% to 639,200. At the same time, Canada’s fossil fuel sector will see a 9% drop in employment Tweet this
  • The clean energy sector’s GDP is forecast to grow by an impressive 58% by 2030—significantly more than the 9% growth expected in fossil fuels. Tweet this
  • Clean energy jobs in Alberta are set to increase 164% over the next decade—the greatest increase of any Canadian province—while Saskatchewan will also see clean energy jobs double. Tweet this
  • Oil and gas may have dominated Canada’s energy past, but it’s Canada’s clean energy sector that will define its new reality. Tweet this
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Executive Summary

As jobs in fossil fuels decline amid a shifting global landscape, rapid growth in Canada’s clean energy sector will more than make up the difference.

So finds the modelling report, The New Reality, from Clean Energy Canada and Navius Research, which forecasts changes in jobs, GDP and investment in Canadian energy between 2020 and 2030.

Canada’s clean energy sector already employs 430,500 people—more than the entire real estate sector—and by 2030, that number is projected to grow almost 50% to 639,200 under the federal government’s new climate plan. At the same time, Canada’s fossil fuel sector will see a 9% drop in employment. In terms of raw numbers, the 208,700 new clean energy jobs added by 2030 far exceed the 125,800 lost in fossil fuels.

Canada’s clean energy sector is made up of companies and jobs that help reduce carbon pollution, whether by generating clean energy, helping move it, reducing energy consumption, or making low-carbon technologies. It includes a wide range of jobs, from technicians working in renewable energy generation, like wind and solar, to the worker assembling battery packs for new electric buses to the insulator retrofitting homes so they waste less energy.