Bennett Jones
Vivek Warrier comments in Daily Oil Bulletin's look at "Canada Energized: What Is The Country's Need For An R&D Strategy And Innovation Agenda?"
On Vision and Action
Vivek says Canada needs a coherent national vision and strategy for continued stimulation and incentivization of new energy technology development and promotion of the energy industry. Greater co-ordination between federal and provincial governments is important, and “In the absence of that, what we’re already seeing is provincial governments such as Alberta’s taking that step on their own.”
ESG
On ESG, Vivek says customers and investors increasingly are demanding energy firms measure themselves by ESG metrics, and “We are way ahead of the curve in this country on that front. Particularly the oil and gas industry in Western Canada has been pursuing these objectives for some time, and has been even more relentless on that focus lately.” Vivek added there's no question that ESG reporting will become mandatory and be legislated into securities laws and other forms of disclosure obligations.
New Energy and Technology
Vivek says the combination of the global pandemic and the Saudi-Russian oil price war has catalyzed provincial and federal strategies to stimulate new forms of energy and new emerging technologies. “Even though they’ve been exploring these things for some time, they’re starting to get more involved in things such as hydrogen, geothermal and other forms of energy. Counterintuitively, it’s actually crystalized people’s thinking about these issues.”