Rick Smith

Canada’s MOU agreement with Alberta puts the country’s commitment to net zero emissions by 2050 firmly out of reach. Read our full statement from @rjcsmith⬇️ climateinstitute.ca/news/mou-with-…

Seizing the moment: Pakistan targets 95% renewable electricity by 2040, 60% by 2030! The key rationale is cutting reliance on imported fossil fuels.

24% of trips on China's highways during the May 1 holiday were in EVs, while the share of EVs in all vehicles is 15%, highlighting how EVs are making a bigger dent in oil consumption than their share in the fleet. EV charging volumes along the highways were up 56% year on year.

Two noteworthy pieces of news today: 1) The penetration rate of new energy vehicles (NEVs) in China’s passenger vehicle market exceeded 60% for the first time in April 2026, setting a new historical record. 2) China exported more electric vehicles than traditional cars for the first time in April. In April, China exported 769,000 automobiles in total, with NEVs accounting for 52.7% of all exports. wsj.com/business/autos…

The battery revolution is amazing. Batteries have almost completely displaced gas in Queensland and all it took was two short years!

We were thrilled to meet in person with Shianne McKay from @yourCIER this week in Winnipeg. We want to thank her and the CIER team for their long-standing partnership on the Indigenous Perspectives case studies program.

There’s a lot of fiction out there about industrial carbon pricing in Canada. Get the facts in our latest op-ed from @rjcsmith.⬇️ nationalnewswatch.com/2026/05/06/fac…

Big announcement that further underlines how critical it is that Canada makes its system of industrial carbon pricing more cohesive and effective ⬇️ energyconnects.com/news/renewable…

The stakes are high and they are clear. The federal-AB MOU deal is make or break for Canada’s trajectory to net zero by 2050. My latest on the fact and fiction of industrial carbon pricing @ClimateInstit nationalnewswatch.com/2026/05/06/fac…

The US Government (yes, the US Government) is projecting that solar, battery storage, and wind would account for 93% of all new utility-scale power generation capacity added to the grid this year The US clean energy boom is unstoppable

Emissions from households—from personal transport to home heating—make up 20% of Canada’s emissions. Fortunately, there’s a solution that can cut emissions and protect people from volatile fossil fuel costs: electrification.⚡️ Read our latest⬇️🧵 climateinstitute.ca/how-government…

The rollout of solar, wind, nuclear, EVs, and heat pumps since 2019 has triggered a silent structural execution of the status quo: >Wiped out gas demand equal to half the global LNG market >Crushed more coal demand than what India uses in a year >Avoided 35 Exajoules of fossil demand, or 7% of the entire global market This isn't just growth. It's a terminal replacement. Just check-out multi-colored bar below showing "Decrease from clean technologies deployment" that literally pushes down the global emissions trajectory The economics are settled. The replacement is structural. The electrification of everything is accelerating

Some of Canada’s top trading partners already have industrial carbon prices in line with $130/t in the 🇨🇦-Alberta MOU: 🇪🇺EU C$120 🇳🇴Norway C$120 🇨🇭Switzld C$119 🇬🇧UK C$85 Our new analysis of the MOU shows strong carbon markets can drive big emissions cuts⬇️440megatonnes.ca/insight/canada…

AFRICA SOLAR: wowsers, almost 4GW of panels in one month! Yes, it was prior to the 9% China export rebate changes, so a bit of a rise was expected, but even still! Records everywhere.. 🧵

Our latest analysis shows that the emissions implications of the Canada–Alberta MOU will depend primarily on one key factor: how the industrial carbon market is updated. 440megatonnes.ca/insight/canada…

Battery storage is now the fastest-growing power tech on Earth: In 2025, we added 110GW of battery capacity in a single year, more than the highest-ever annual capacity additions from natural gas The storage revolution isn't coming. It is already out-building gas at its peak

Solar is the fastest growing source of electricity in history. In 2025, global solar grew by 636 TWh, more than twice the UK's annual electricity demand. 3x more growth than wind 18x more than gas or nuclear

Happy Earth Day! My latest column for @corporateknight on why the climate change pendulum is about to swing again:

For anyone wondering whether the fossil fuel crisis in the Middle East is driving interest in clean energy technologies: China's exports of batteries, EVs and solar products shot up in March to $21.9 billion! This is an all-time record and a 70% increase over March 2025.

THREAD: The IEA global energy review 2026 * CO2 record high, but growth nearly ground to halt * Clean energy shaved 3bn tonnes off CO2 * Fossil-fuel power pushed into reverse * Age of Electricity "confirmed" * "Extraordinary" solar growth * Batteries up 40% * EVs up 20% 1/10