26 October 2007
Waterloo, Ontario

Thank you very much. It is a pleasure to be here and a great pleasure to extend an official welcome to the many here who are visitors to Canada. I want to offer my thanks and congratulations to Jim Balsillie in particular. As you all know, without him this conference would not be taking place.

Research in Motion and the Blackberry have done a great deal to showcase Canada's technology around the world. But the Center for International Governance Innovation (CIGI) and the Canadian International Council may well be Jim's greatest legacy.

Jim and CIGI, along with the University of Waterloo and the Royal Society of Canada, have assembled a tremendous meeting of the minds here. We have in this room the kind of wisdom, knowledge and experience we need to move closer to our energy and environmental goals.

This panel is meant to "frame the energy issues" as we see them. From where I sit, I see five major challenges facing the global energy system. None of them will be a surprise to you:

• first, the geopolitical risks to energy supply around the world;
   
• second, sustained increases in global demand, leading to potential supply challenges themselves;
   
• third, the reliance for years to come on fossil fuels within the global energy mix;
   
• fourth, the re-emergence of "resource nationalism" and its potential to disrupt markets;
   
• and finally the fifth, the growth in global energy GHGs.
   

These challenges may affect Canada in various ways, but we're not alone in this. These are challenges that all countries face today.

You've heard that Canada is an emerging energy super power and that we can play an important role in facing many of these challenges. But unlike many countries, Canada has energy and a lot of it.

In fact, we are currently the sixth largest producer in the world. We have 14 per cent of the world's proven global oil reserves. Only Saudi Arabia has more. We have massive reserves of natural gas, huge coal deposits, we are the world's largest producer of uranium and that's only the beginning. We have yet to determine the potential energy promise of our Arctic.

It won't be long before our energy exports of oil and gas hit the hundred-billion-dollar mark – exports that already account for more than 80 per cent of our trade surplus. We're the only country in the OECD whose energy exports are actually increasing and our open market policies make Canada one of the prime counties to attract foreign investment. However, we also have to recognize that producing and using fossil fuels account for more than 80 per cent of our greenhouse gas emissions.

And that's where I really see the primary challenge. I often talk about this as the three Es, and we have to be able to balance all three: the energy, the economy and the environment. All of us know that you can't move anything in this country without energy. Whether it be people or goods, to move them you need energy.; And as I've just said, energy is contributing – on both the production and the consumption side – to greenhouse gas emissions and pollutants. At the same time, energy is the cornerstone our economy.

Some would say this is an enormous challenge. I'm one who believes that you can turn this challenge into an enormous opportunity. We've stated in the recent Speech from the Throne that "we owe it to future generations to take action on climate change, so that they will have the same economic prosperity that we have today. Canada's practical, balanced plan ensures that we make real progress on tackling this common challenge."

We need a balanced approach. There's no getting around it. We have to have energy if we're going to succeed, and we have to find the intersection of the three Es. I want to share a few thoughts on how I believe we can do this.

When we took office as the Government of Canada, I had a hard look at how we might find the intersection of the three Esso we could succeed in each of them. I concluded that in the matter of energy, there are three related areas where we need focused activity.

Number one, we need to put a lot more clean and renewable energy on the grid. In Canada, we have many opportunities to do this. We have literally hundreds of thousands of kilometers of coastline. And we're seeing the beginnings of ocean energy. We've launched the first tidal turbine off the west coast of Canada, which is now producing electricity. There is also enormous potential in wind and biomass, to name just a few renewable sources of energy.

At the same time, however, we've got to realize that renewable energy within our larger energy mix is only about a half of one per cent today. We have to be realistic and recognize that although we have great opportunities to make progress with renewable energy, we've definitely got some progress to make.

Secondly, we've got to become a lot more energy-efficient. Just look at the amount of energy we consume. I absolutely believe that the largest untapped source of energy in this country is the energy that you and I waste every day. It's larger than the oil sands – it's larger than any other energy source that we have.

Lastly, the third area we have to look at – and one that I want to focus on a bit – is that we need to use technology to clean up our conventional sources of energy. This is going to be critical.

In fact, when you think about it, technology is playing a major role in all three of these strategies. Technology is driving renewable energy within all disciplines. With energy efficiency, just about everything you touch comes back to technology.

Earlier this year my colleague, the Minister of the Environment, and I moved to bring in new standards for lighting. And some people came up to me and said, "Well, you know, lighting? Come on, guys, like we've got to get serious about energy efficiency."

But just think about lighting. Five percent of all the energy we consume in North America is in lighting. We have the ability to reduce that amount of energy by up to 80 per cent. This is all technology-related.

Take our improved transportation systems, for example, or the use of hydrogen or the evolution of hybrid vehicles, which are becoming better and better each day. Because of technology, we now have cars running on hydrogen that are commercially viable. Even some of the buses on Parliament Hill are running on hydrogen today. This is all the result of technology, which is going to be key.

But where I really think technology is going to be significant is with conventional energy sources. Something close to 80 per cent of the world's energy supply is coming from fossil fuels today. Just think about that and how far we have to go. But think also about the great opportunity we have here in Canada to be a global leader in these technologies.

For example, there is clean coal technology and carbon sequestration. We have the technology today to produce energy from coal that is virtually 100 per cent pollution-free. They can take out virtually all of the pollutants from the stack – the noxious oxide, the particulate matter – all of it. When you combine that with sequestration you can have a very clean form of energy. And we have thousands of years of coal supply both here in Canada and around the globe.

You can also understand why these technologies are so fundamentally important when you look at the bigger picture. Our Prime Minister, when he attended APEC in Australia earlier this year, talked about the importance of having all countries involved if we're really going to have an impact. That's going to be the solution if we're going to really make a difference on the environment and on the reduction of greenhouse gases. Consider that countries like China are putting 1,000 megawatts of new energy on the grid every 10 to 14 days, and that's primarily from coal – most of their energy is coal. Technology is going to be the answer there.

I believe that in short order you're going to see significant clean-coal projects in Canada with full sequestration. This is something our government is committed to. So again, I absolutely believe that technology is going to play a major role.

Another important technology is nuclear. There is a significant increase in the production of nuclear energy for domestic purposes around the globe. This is something we haven't seen for decades. It's been more than 25 years since a new nuclear plant has been built here in Canada, and even longer in the United States. Today, however, there is renewed interest worldwide

New Brunswick is conducting a feasibility study for the construction of an advanced CANDU reactor. Fifty per cent of Ontario's electricity is produced by nuclear power and the province is considering more. It's an emission-free source and it's greenhouse-gas free. If one looks at where the technology's evolving with Generation IV, it will be possible to extract even more energy from uranium and be able to reprocess the fuel more efficiently, reducing waste.

So again, I think technology is crucial in all of these areas. Moreover, it's a way Canada can leave its mark.

Look for example, at what Jim Balsillie has been able to do with Research In Motion and wireless communications. I travel around the globe.

I can be sitting on a plane at 39,000 feet and hear the Blackberries. They're in every boardroom and on the street. This technology is having a major impact around the world.

We here in Canada need to go to the same level of innovation with clean energy technology. Our challenge is to transform that technology and make it available to the world. With our energy resources and technical capacity, I believe we have the ability to do that in every discipline of clean energy.

It's innovators like you who are going to make this happen. Our role in government is to collaborate with you and other governments in creating the best conditions we can to encourage it to happen. Just the other day the National Post referred to the scientific journal Nature emphasizing technology as the way to succeed on the environment and climate change. It was even suggested that a massive investment of tens of billions is needed, similar to the investments made in wartime.

On that note, I want to wish you a successful two days in this conference. It's been a pleasure to share my thoughts with you and I look forward to any questions you may have.

Thank you.