Reimagining energy in the Canadian boreal zone: Policy needs to facilitate a successful transition to a low carbon energy future

Canada will be unable to meet its greenhouse gas pledges – of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 30% over 2005 levels by 2030 – without transitioning away from the current high carbon economy. This transition will bring new challenges, especially to the Canadian boreal zone. The boreal zone continues to experience intensive natural resource activities including the extraction of forest, mining, oil and gas, and renewable energy products, which in combination with climate change, is placing the future sustainability of the boreal zone at risk. We explored policy options to reduce the risk to the future sustainability of the boreal zone in light of the inevitable energy transition to either higher or lower dependence on carbon and the uncertainty of society’s capacity to adapt to change. Current policies are putting us on a path towards failure to achieve sustainability of the boreal zone. While current policies may be moving us towards a low carbon future, they lack a shared vision of what the energy tra...