Moderator:
Jane McDonaldBoard Member
Speakers:
Bentley AllanTransition Pathway Principal
Teresa KramarzAssistant Professor, School of the Environment in the University of Toronto.
Elena PravettoniClean Power Lead, Energy Transitions Commission
For an energy transformation of this depth and scale, we better have a clear idea of where we’re going. After all, how can we build pathways to a destination we can’t fully envision?
We talk a lot about getting to a net-zero future, but what does that future actually look like? What actions can we take now to secure Canada’s role in the new energy economy?
Listen to the full conversation between three expert panelists, Elena Pravettoni (Clean Power Lead at the Energy Transitions Commission), Bentley Allen (Transition Pathway Principal at Transition Accelerator) and Teresa Kramarz (Assistant Professor and Environmental Governance Lab Co-Director at the University of Toronto) as they dive into these fundamental questions and paint a vision of our net-zero future.
The panelists explore Canada’s barriers and trade-offs and emphasize the importance of community and stakeholders’ involvement and collaboration. They also share concrete examples of national and international projects, offering valuable insights and lessons learned along the way.
Achieving a net-zero future requires aligning politics and economics with a strategic 2050 mindset. emphasized Bentley Allen, Transition Pathway Principal at the Transition Accelerator.
The Electrons, Rocks, and Brains report clarifies the sources of power and prosperity for countries in the new net-zero world and positions them within the 2050 global green economy. “The core message [of the report] is that Canada has this amazing natural resource base that will put it in a very strong position over the transition of the next 25-30 years. But in order to actually take advantage of it, we need to get very strategic about building the knowledge and the production networks around our natural resource base,” said Bentley Allen, Transition Pathway Principal at the Transition Accelerator.
When it comes to public investment and determining which trade-offs are worth making, justice is an important lens, according to Teresa Kramarz, assistant Professor and Environmental Governance Lab Co-Director at the University of Toronto. “Who are the winners and losers, and who are going to be permanent minorities because of the continuation of the powerlessness of certain constituencies? How much harm to the environment is going to be done in order to purportedly do well for the environment and for us?
There are a range of infrastructure, regulatory and administrative barriers to planning and permitting. However, as Elena Pravettoni, Clean Power Lead at the Energy Transitions Commission, pointed out, “there are clear actions that can be taken to make sure that solving these planning and permitting challenges benefits everyone, that we can be community-focused, biodiversity-aware and positive in some cases, and that we can really take on board the whole set of interests”.
She also added, “there are win-win actions that we can take to make sure that global energy supply chains can deliver the transition at the speed and scale required, but countries will have to understand their priorities and act accordingly to map out that future sort of supply chain.”
Jane McDonald is the Vice President of Climate and Nature Solutions. Previously, she led two of Canada’s major sustainable economy think tanks, Smart Prosperity and the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD). She is a member of Canada’s Generation Energy Council, which produced the first energy vision for Canada consistent with the country’s climate goals, and the Farmers for Climate Solutions Task Force. She is a Director of The Transition Accelerator, and a delegate to the Net-Zero Data Public Utility, the world’s first global repository for private sector climate transition-related data freely accessible to all.
Jane began her career in the private sector, launching new environmental markets at New York investment bank Cantor Fitzgerald where she brokered some of the first-ever carbon credit deals between large energy companies and international projects. She then directed a successful advocacy effort to have renewable electricity from major Canadian utilities included in President Obama’s Clean Power Plan.
From 2015-2106 she served as Policy Director in the office of Canada’s Minister of Environment and Climate Change, through the signing of the Paris Agreement, the adoption of a national climate strategy and the implementation of a national price on carbon pollution.
In 2020, she joined an independent group of Canadian finance, policy and sustainability leaders who formed the Task Force for a Resilient Recovery, publishing a roadmap for a long-term COVID recovery strategy to keep Canada competitive in the fast-growing global clean economy.
Outside of her work, Jane has taught as an Adjunct Professor of Environmental Finance at the University of Toronto, served on the board of many non-profits, is a 2007-2008 Action Canada Fellow and a 2024 winner of the Clean50 Award.
Bentley Allan, PhD, is a Transition Pathway Principal at the Transition Accelerator, as well as an Associate Professor of Political Science at Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Allan is an award-winning scholar who has written on the dynamics of international order, science and politics, climate policy, and the political economy of decarbonization. He provides regular advice to government and industry on geopolitics, industrial strategy, and policy.
He has co-lead the development of three sector strategies and roadmaps in collaboration with industry partners. He is the co-coordinator of the Centre for Net-Zero Industrial Policy which advances research and action to strengthen and mobilize Canada’s expertise in modern industrial policy, enabling strategic collaboration between government, industry, indigenous communities, labor, and financial institutions in pursuit of good jobs and a competitive economy.
Teresa Kramarz is an Assistant Professor at the School of the Environment in the University of Toronto. She is the Co-Director of the Environmental Governance Lab, the Co-Chair of the United Nations Development Programme’s External Advisory Group for Energy Governance and the co-convener of the Accountability in Global Environmental Governance Task Force of the Earth System Governance network. Her work focuses on the governance of extractive industries in the renewable energy transition, environmental accountability, and environmental partnerships led by international organizations. She has published three books – “Forgotten Values: The World Bank and Environmental Partnerships” and “Global Environmental Governance and the Accountability Trap” with MIT Press; and “Populist Moments and Extractivist States in Venezuela and Ecuador: The People’s Oil?” with Palgrave. Recent articles appear in Regulation and Governance, Environmental Politics, Global Environmental Politics, and Energy Research and Social Science. She has been working on environmental policy and governance issues for almost 30 years starting as an international civil servant in the World Bank and United Nations Development Programme, and then as a scholar.
Elena is the Clean Power Lead for the Energy Transitions Commission (ETC), a global coalition of leaders from across the energy landscape committed to achieving net-zero emissions by mid-century. Elena oversees the analytical work programme on clean power, collaborating with the ETC’s Commissioners and experts. Her current focus has been on a report series on Barriers to Clean Electrification, and she is the lead author of the ETC report Making Clean Electrification Possible: 30 years to electrify the global economy. She has also led work for global mitigation efforts for the ETC’s Keeping 1.5°C Alive series, working with COP teams. Prior to joining the ETC, Elena worked in the Energy group at IHS Markit in Washington DC and London, focusing on long term global energy scenarios. She was also the research assistant for Pulitzer-Prize winning author Daniel Yergin’s recent book on energy geopolitics, The New Map. Elena holds an MA in International Relations and Economics from SAIS Johns Hopkins, and a BA in European Studies with First Class Honours from King’s College London.