This Labor Day when the world is swirling in a kaleidoscope of massive challenges, it looks like maybe a few of those challenges can be tackled at once by transitioning to be an economy that runs on renewable energy, versus primarily on fossil fuels.
The massive and unexpectedly devastating damage from Hurricane Ida this past week, even in New York City and inland New Jersey as well as in coastal Louisiana, is a stark reminder that we must mitigate and slow climate change.
To do so, we need to power the economy without adding carbon emissions, and many scientists say that also we need a “negative carbon” system, which removes the CO2 already in the atmosphere.
The good news for the economy is that, “the ongoing global energy transition offers the chance to create new jobs and reshape all aspects of how energy is produced and distributed,” according to the International Renewable Energy Agency’s (IRENA) report “Renewable Energy: A Gender Perspective” (2019), estimating that these jobs could grow to nearly 29 million in 2050.
Anne Kelly, VP of Government Relations, Ceres
Ceres.org
How do President Biden’s infrastructure bills address these needs? “This is very much a jobs plan,” Anne Kelly, Vice President of Government Relations and Director, Business for Innovative Climate and Energy Policy at Ceres, a long-time sustainability-focused nonprofit, told me on my podcast Electric Ladies recently.
Biden’s infrastructure plans, Kelly asserted, address “four interwoven challenges the administration is facing. The first is the post-pandemic reality, the second is the economic downturn, the third is the climate crisis, and the fourth is inequality and racial equity and the disproportionate environmental harm and other harms that have been placed on low-income communities and communities of color.”
“The general theme is that the road to economic recovery is through climate action. And so, it is an infrastructure and a jobs plan, but there’s no question it very intentionally addresses the climate crisis in a number of ways,” she explained.
Help Wanted: Women in Renewable Energy
International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) report on Renewable Energy: A Gender Perspective, 2019
International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA)
To drive this climate-friendly economic growth, the IRENA report states that we need more women in the renewable energy sectors – and a lot of them. Currently, women hold only 32% of renewable energy jobs, which is better than in fossil fuels where women hold only 22% of jobs. But women still hold far fewer of the science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) jobs.
We need the skills and innovative ideas that diverse talent brings, so “gender equality…is also essential to shaping positive social and economic development outcomes. Women provide valuable perspectives on key decisions, from investment priorities to project design,” the IRENA report states.
Since the renewable energy sector needs talent across its supply chain – from utilities to engineering firms, from independent power producers to start-ups, in policymaking, regulators, academic institutions and at the community level – “The renewable energy industry needs to engage and retain more women – and promote them – to fill its growing needs for skills,” the IRENA report insists.
Women’s “leadership and contributions will be crucial to ensuring that the energy systems of the future address the needs of modern societies and leave no one behind,” and therefore, it added, “Promoting gender equality and including gender considerations on all levels should be a high priority in both the public and private sectors.”
The August 2021 Jobs Report showed growth in at least one key area
WASHINGTON, DC – APRIL 22: Electric vehicles are displayed before a news conference with White House … [+] Climate Adviser Gina McCarthy and U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
Getty Images
While many have been framing the August 2021 jobs report as disappointing based on expectations and the prior few months of very strong job growth, one sector key to economic growth and the clean economy is transportation, and that sector added jobs this month, at least modestly. Transportation and warehousing added 53,000 jobs in August 2021, and women hold more transportation jobs than they did a year ago. Women hold 25.1% of transportation jobs as of the August 2021, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), versus 24.5% of them in August 2020 (and more than 25% in July 2021).
Kelly said this sector is critical to addressing climate change: “we’re going to have to go after the biggest sources of emissions. So, the (Biden infrastructure) plan really looks at transforming our transportation system, to electrifying our transportation system, to the purchase of electric vehicles, to the buildout of electric vehicle infrastructure in a major, major way, again it’s got some of those job-generating elements.”
Protecting us from losing power – and creating jobs
Utility poles lean over a street following Hurricane Ida on August 31, 2021 in Houma, … [+] Louisiana.(Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)
Getty Images
We know we’ll have more extreme weather events and that they will become more and more severe. Think of Hurricane Ida on steroids. That means we must get that “smart grid” we’ve all been hearing about for years.
“Grid modernization…is essential if you’re contributing to a clean energy economy, you have to upgrade the grid and make it responsive,” Kelly insisted, adding “and all of this is job-generating.”
We just need to make sure women get an equitable share of those jobs, so we don’t have a repeat of the Texas ERCOT groupthink catastrophe. Our lives and livelihoods depend upon it.
OTTAWA – Canada’s unemployment rate held steady at 6.5 per cent last month as hiring remained weak across the economy.
Statistics Canada’s labour force survey on Friday said employment rose by a modest 15,000 jobs in October.
Business, building and support services saw the largest gain in employment.
Meanwhile, finance, insurance, real estate, rental and leasing experienced the largest decline.
Many economists see weakness in the job market continuing in the short term, before the Bank of Canada’s interest rate cuts spark a rebound in economic growth next year.
Despite ongoing softness in the labour market, however, strong wage growth has raged on in Canada. Average hourly wages in October grew 4.9 per cent from a year ago, reaching $35.76.
Friday’s report also shed some light on the financial health of households.
According to the agency, 28.8 per cent of Canadians aged 15 or older were living in a household that had difficulty meeting financial needs – like food and housing – in the previous four weeks.
That was down from 33.1 per cent in October 2023 and 35.5 per cent in October 2022, but still above the 20.4 per cent figure recorded in October 2020.
People living in a rented home were more likely to report difficulty meeting financial needs, with nearly four in 10 reporting that was the case.
That compares with just under a quarter of those living in an owned home by a household member.
Immigrants were also more likely to report facing financial strain last month, with about four out of 10 immigrants who landed in the last year doing so.
That compares with about three in 10 more established immigrants and one in four of people born in Canada.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.
The Canadian Institute for Health Information says health-care spending in Canada is projected to reach a new high in 2024.
The annual report released Thursday says total health spending is expected to hit $372 billion, or $9,054 per Canadian.
CIHI’s national analysis predicts expenditures will rise by 5.7 per cent in 2024, compared to 4.5 per cent in 2023 and 1.7 per cent in 2022.
This year’s health spending is estimated to represent 12.4 per cent of Canada’s gross domestic product. Excluding two years of the pandemic, it would be the highest ratio in the country’s history.
While it’s not unusual for health expenditures to outpace economic growth, the report says this could be the case for the next several years due to Canada’s growing population and its aging demographic.
Canada’s per capita spending on health care in 2022 was among the highest in the world, but still less than countries such as the United States and Sweden.
The report notes that the Canadian dental and pharmacare plans could push health-care spending even further as more people who previously couldn’t afford these services start using them.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.
Canadian Press health coverage receives support through a partnership with the Canadian Medical Association. CP is solely responsible for this content.
As Canadians wake up to news that Donald Trump will return to the White House, the president-elect’s protectionist stance is casting a spotlight on what effect his second term will have on Canada-U.S. economic ties.
Some Canadian business leaders have expressed worry over Trump’s promise to introduce a universal 10 per cent tariff on all American imports.
A Canadian Chamber of Commerce report released last month suggested those tariffs would shrink the Canadian economy, resulting in around $30 billion per year in economic costs.
More than 77 per cent of Canadian exports go to the U.S.
Canada’s manufacturing sector faces the biggest risk should Trump push forward on imposing broad tariffs, said Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters president and CEO Dennis Darby. He said the sector is the “most trade-exposed” within Canada.
“It’s in the U.S.’s best interest, it’s in our best interest, but most importantly for consumers across North America, that we’re able to trade goods, materials, ingredients, as we have under the trade agreements,” Darby said in an interview.
“It’s a more complex or complicated outcome than it would have been with the Democrats, but we’ve had to deal with this before and we’re going to do our best to deal with it again.”
American economists have also warned Trump’s plan could cause inflation and possibly a recession, which could have ripple effects in Canada.
It’s consumers who will ultimately feel the burden of any inflationary effect caused by broad tariffs, said Darby.
“A tariff tends to raise costs, and it ultimately raises prices, so that’s something that we have to be prepared for,” he said.
“It could tilt production mandates. A tariff makes goods more expensive, but on the same token, it also will make inputs for the U.S. more expensive.”
A report last month by TD economist Marc Ercolao said research shows a full-scale implementation of Trump’s tariff plan could lead to a near-five per cent reduction in Canadian export volumes to the U.S. by early-2027, relative to current baseline forecasts.
Retaliation by Canada would also increase costs for domestic producers, and push import volumes lower in the process.
“Slowing import activity mitigates some of the negative net trade impact on total GDP enough to avoid a technical recession, but still produces a period of extended stagnation through 2025 and 2026,” Ercolao said.
Since the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement came into effect in 2020, trade between Canada and the U.S. has surged by 46 per cent, according to the Toronto Region Board of Trade.
With that deal is up for review in 2026, Canadian Chamber of Commerce president and CEO Candace Laing said the Canadian government “must collaborate effectively with the Trump administration to preserve and strengthen our bilateral economic partnership.”
“With an impressive $3.6 billion in daily trade, Canada and the United States are each other’s closest international partners. The secure and efficient flow of goods and people across our border … remains essential for the economies of both countries,” she said in a statement.
“By resisting tariffs and trade barriers that will only raise prices and hurt consumers in both countries, Canada and the United States can strengthen resilient cross-border supply chains that enhance our shared economic security.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 6, 2024.
