There is a future for hydrogen, but it is not a panacea. Nor is anything about Canada’s energy pathways certain. Further research and modelling is necessary, and upcoming reports will help guide and inform policy choices. What does seem certain, however, is that Canada’s current hydrogen strategy is based on implausible ambitions and fails to grasp the very real obstacles standing in the way of mass adoption.

We are in the middle of an historic energy crisis. Recently, news headlines have been overwhelmed by commentaries on the price of energy across Europe, driving governments like Canada’s to make sweeping statements about the future of natural gas and hydrogen. Many of these new climate plans are predicated upon carbon capture and storage technologies.

On March 29, the Government of Canada released its new emissions reduction plan. The document is filled with spending promises and ambitious targets, but it’s important to step back and ask whether anything about the plan is achievable. The report outlines how Canada will, “reduce emissions across the entire economy to reach our emissions reduction target of 40 to 45 percent below 2005 levels by 2030.”

Why would the Canadian government choose and promote nuclear energy over other cheaper and readily available renewable technologies? It is true that there are still major flaws with renewables, but given that most small modular reactors are a decade away (at least), and the cost of solar has already dropped 89 percent in the last decade, it seems unlikely that SMRs—whenever they are ready—will be competitive.

Governments around the world are comparing the resolution of the COVID-19 crisis to a war. After all, it was the New Deal and the Second World War that launched an era of globally unprecedented economic growth, prosperity and the swelling of the middle class. Let us use this ‘war on COVID-19’ and the Green New Deal to learn from our past mistakes, and prepare us for a socially and environmentally just future.