Minister O’Regan Launches Hydrogen Strategy for Canada

December 16, 2020                       St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador                    Natural Resources Canada   
       

As the Government of Canada continues to protect and support Canadians through the COVID-19 pandemic, it is also important that the country look to the future. Today, Canada’s Minister of Natural Resources, the Honourable Seamus O’Regan, launched the Hydrogen Strategy for Canada, an ambitious framework that seeks to position Canada as a global hydrogen leader, cementing this low-carbon and zero-emission fuel technology as a key part of our path to net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.

The Strategy is underpinned by a federal investment of $1.5 billion in a Low-carbon and Zero-emissions Fuels Fund to increase the production and use of low-carbon fuels, including hydrogen. Low-carbon and zero-emission hydrogen has the potential to reduce our annual greenhouse gas emissions by up to 45 million metric tonnes a year in 2030 and could create up to 350,000 new jobs in Canada by 2050.

The Strategy is  designed to spur investment and partnerships to establish Canada as a global supplier of hydrogen, and to increase domestic production, which will transform our energy sector. As one of the top 10 producers of hydrogen in the world, Canada will benefit from the growing global demand for hydrogen — a market that is expected to reach almost $12 trillion by 2050. The strategy will also be complemented by the Clean Fuel Standard, which will further drive investment and growth in Canada’s fuels sector by incentivizing the development and adoption of clean fuels such as hydrogen.

The Strategy will utilize Canadian expertise to build new hydrogen supply that will power our country’s clean energy future. The use of hydrogen across the country will lower the emissions of sectors like resources extraction, transportation, power generation and manufacturing.

The Strategy is the result of three years of research and analysis, with input from 1,500 leading experts and stakeholders including workers, industry, other levels of government, Indigenous organizations and academia. It will support the Government of Canada’s recently announced climate plan, A Healthy Environment and a Healthy Economy, and also builds on the development and launch of the hydrogen initiative by 23 countries at the 10th Clean Energy Ministerial meeting in May 2019. Under Canada’s leadership, that initiative focused on accelerating the global commercialization of hydrogen and fuel cell technologies across all sectors of the economy.