Post-pandemic, we need to look at energy efficiency
By James Riley
As governments across the country start to allow people to emerge from lockdown, their focus will start shifting from containing COVID-19 to repairing the damage it’s done. One area where they should be looking very hard is energy efficiency.
An investment in energy efficiency will deliver robust environmental and economic returns, ones that will stimulate job creation in the trades and manufacturing sector while simultaneously reducing greenhouse gas emissions and helping make homeowners and businesses more resilient.
Right now, in fact, there might not be a more compelling political proposition than investing in energy efficiency, especially since it taps into values every Canadian has in common. After all, who wouldn’t want to protect the environment and save money in the process?
According to a 2018 report prepared for Clean Energy Canada, energy-efficiency measures could help reduce our national greenhouse gas emissions by 52 megatonnes by 2030 — enough to get us 25 percent of the way to our Paris Accord targets.
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