Canada, Germany sign green energy deal in bid to power fledgling hydrogen sector
Source: · CBC NEWS · | March 16, 2021
Countries agree to collaborate as both seek to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050.
Peter Altmaier, Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Energy, left, and Heiko Maas, Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs, make a press statement at the start of the international energy transition conference "Berlin Energy Transition Dialogue" at the Federal Foreign Office in Berlin, Germany, on Tuesday, March 16, 2021. Senior officials from several G20 countries joined Canada and Germany at the virtual forum Tuesday. (Bernd von Jutrczenka/Associated Press)
Canada and Germany have signed an agreement to team up on green energy innovation and trade — with an eye to hydrogen as the market for the low-carbon fuel heats up.
Signed today by the two countries' energy ministers, the memorandum of understanding outlines a plan to co-operate on energy policy and research as both countries strive to reach the goal of net-zero emissions by 2050.
Natural Resources Minister Seamus O'Regan says Quebec and his home province of Newfoundland and Labrador are particularly well poised to start generating so-called "green hydrogen," which burns cleanly and can be produced using wind and solar power.
"We have tremendous challenges and opportunities here in Canada," said O'Regan. "There is no other democracy with the bounty of natural resources that we have and yet we face the urgency of climate change."
O'Regan stressed the need to retrain workers in regions with economies long reliant on struggling fossil-fuel industries, saying the transition could be "messy."
"It often makes people on both sides of the political spectrum, either side, unhappy," he said in a virtual signing ceremony with Peter Altmaier, Germany's minister of economic affairs and energy.
"Oil will be with us for some time and it will continue to be a part of the Canadian economy, without question."