By Andrew Hammond
Since the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) last year in Washington, there has been a huge focus on the resurgence of U.S. green leadership. However, under the global radar in North America, far less attention is — surprisingly — paid to Canada’s burgeoning credentials in this area.
While many miss Canada’s sustainability strengths, Europe is not one of them. Brussels sees in the vast North American country a huge partnership opportunity to help future-proof its global green leadership as it prepares for the possibility of a second Donald Trump presidency from 2025 in the United States.
No surprise therefore that the powers announced a new "Green Alliance" at their annual bilateral summit last Thursday and Friday. It is also no coincidence that the summit was hosted in St. Johns, the capital of Newfoundland and Labrador.
That Canadian province has big plans to try to establish itself as a hydrogen production and export powerhouse in the near future, with an eye on European markets, especially Germany, which are key buyers of hydrogen. At the time of writing, the province is considering four major wind hydrogen proposals through its approval process.
These discussions build from a bilateral hydrogen deal that Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau signed with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz last year in Newfoundland, the core of what could become a vibrant hydrogen energy partnership. Yet, Newfoundland and Labrador is only one of several areas in Atlantic Canada where companies are vying to build massive wind-powered hydrogen and ammonia plants. The goal for most of them is to transport hydrogen, in the form of ammonia, to Europe, where there is a significant market for greener energy.
The ambitious green alliance agreement reached with Canada, the most comprehensive form of bilateral engagement established under the European Green Deal, is based on a template that the EU has pursued with other advanced, industrialized countries like Japan and Norway. It has also pushed similar initiatives with key emerging markets too, including India.
As COP28 approaches, the new EU-Canadian alliance will give a boost to the climate summit, and also European green leadership. Since the pandemic and Ukraine war, the EU has doubled down on the green economy to meet global goals such as the 2015 Paris climate agreement.
This has built growing momentum behind the European Green Deal mega project. One example of this is the more than 50 major sustainability initiatives announced by Brussels since the signature policy agenda was announced by the Ursula von der Leyen-led Commission.
This has helped the 27-member bloc refashion itself as a global green superpower, which it hopes can secure a renewed political lease of life to boot. This after several difficult decades that saw the rise of challenges such as a growing euroskepticism and multiple financial crises.
However, meeting global green goals cannot be achieved simply by announcing endless, major new political initiatives from Brussels. Growing help from the private sector, and also international allies, is key in meeting this key agenda too.
Hence, the importance of the Canadian deal, which also helps with the wider European goal of diversifying from the Chinese economy to boot. Canada is one of the key Western allies that the EU would like to build stronger green economy supply chains with, including critical raw materials, to help ensure a secure and sustainable supply of materials for Europe’s industry. And in so doing, significantly lower the dependency of the 27 member states on imports from key nations such as China.
So the attractiveness, specifically of Canada to the EU on the green front, goes well beyond its hydrogen capabilities. There are wider plans too for much greater cooperation in areas like carbon pricing and trading.
Take the example of carbon pricing where both Canada and the EU have a shared interest in rolling out carbon markets internationally. Europe was the first power in the world to introduce such a system — the EU Emissions Trading System — in 2005.
Moreover, Brussels has welcomed Canada’s carbon pricing system, and on Friday announced it will become a partner of Trudeau's Global Carbon Pricing Challenge. This challenge seeks to increase explicit carbon pricing coverage of global emissions to 60 percent by 2030 and creates a forum for dialogue, coordination and capacity building on emissions trading.
To be sure, the EU and Canada are not fully aligned on all elements of the green agenda, including coal and fossil fuel subsidies. Canada’s federal auditor highlighted in recent days that the nation is not on track to meet its climate targets due to delays in key measures, including methane regulations and an oil and gas emissions cap.
However, bilateral relations are fundamentally positive, cooperative and mutual reliance could grow significantly further in the second half of the decade, especially if Donald Trump wins a second term as U.S. president. Canada-EU ties in the green economy build from a series of agreements since the 1970s and joint membership of bodies such as the G7 and G20.
So the new EU-Canada green alliance provides a big boost to bilateral ties. Both sets of leaders are keen to double down on relations, not only to seize these new economic opportunities on the horizon, but also to prepare for the trauma of a potential second Trump presidency.
Andrew Hammond is an associate at LSE IDEAS at the London School of Economics.
Before COP 28, Europe's global green leadership grows
23
0
28.11.2023
By Andrew Hammond Since the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) last year in Washington, there has been a huge focus on the resurgence of U.S. green leadership. However, under the global radar in North America, far less attention is — surprisingly — paid to Canada’s burgeoning credentials in this area.
While many miss Canada’s sustainability strengths, Europe is not one of them. Brussels sees in the vast North American country a huge partnership opportunity to help future-proof its global green leadership as it prepares for the possibility of a second Donald Trump presidency from 2025 in the United States.
No surprise therefore that the powers announced a new "Green Alliance" at their annual bilateral summit last Thursday and Friday. It is also no coincidence that the summit was hosted in St. Johns, the capital of Newfoundland and Labrador.
That Canadian province has big plans to try to establish itself as a hydrogen production and export powerhouse in the near future, with an eye on European markets, especially Germany, which are key buyers of hydrogen. At the time of writing, the province is considering four major wind hydrogen proposals through its approval process.
These discussions build from a bilateral hydrogen deal that Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau signed with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz last year in Newfoundland, the........
© The Korea Times
visit website
login
who are we?
contact us
qosheapp
Toi Staff
Gideon Levy
Belen Fernandez
Rami G Khouri
Mort Laitner
Donald Low
Ali Fathollah-Nejad
