In the past two years, entrepreneurs whose pitch decks once talked of net-zero goals and meeting the targets of the Paris Agreement have seen the sands shift beneath them as these priorities have dropped down governments’ agendas.
asserted
priorities → talk → agendas
A recent report from the Auditor General made clear the extent of this change.
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extent → make → change
Canada will miss its 2030 emissions reduction targets by a wide margin, “with several planned measures intended to reduce emissions having been cancelled or weakened.”
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measures → miss → emissions
The government, it noted, has been silent about how it intends to get back on track.
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it → note → track
Today, cleantech entrepreneurs are learning to speak the language of sovereignty, defence, artificial intelligence and data infrastructure as they follow national priorities and funding sources.
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they → learn → priorities
This new order is creating winners and losers as investors focus on a narrow range of businesses perceived as capable of meeting this demand.
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investors → create → demand
Even as global investment in cleantech in the first half of this year hit the highest level since 2022, the number of deals dropped by nearly a quarter.
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number → hit → quarter
With Canada’s cleantech industry set to convene in Toronto on Nov. 17 and 18 for MaRS Climate Impact, here is a look at five key trends and big ideas shaping an industry in flux.
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look → set → flux
Cleantech tries to ride the AI investment wave
The hottest thing in climate tech right now is keeping servers cool.
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thing → try → servers
AI’s gravitational pull is being felt in cleantech as acutely as in the rest of the economy, and funding is flowing to the technologies needed to keep it running.
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funding → feel → it
“AI is having an impact on the availability of funding, and it’s leaving a bigger gap between the haves and have-nots,” says Jeanette Jackson, national director of cleantech at RBCx.
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Jackson → have → RBCx
“The opportunity is for AI to push into these hard tech sectors.”
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AI → push → sectors
While global climate tech venture funding hit $26.1 billion in the first half of this year, up 55 per cent from 2025, a third of that went to companies with technologies linked to making data processing more efficient.
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processing → hit → technologies
Among the big winners are companies that can power the servers and climate control systems on which AI depends.
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AI → power → which
That is leading to the fast-tracking of projects to develop geothermal power and even small modular nuclear reactors.
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That → lead → power
Calgary’s Rodatherm, for example, has signed a memorandum of understanding to develop next-generation geothermal in Utah with potential for about 200 megawatts of generating capacity.
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Rodatherm → sign → capacity
Jackson says that companies that can store or manage energy, help optimize chips and processing power and create efficiencies are also gaining, while those less closely linked to data centres are in “a holding pattern” waiting for demand to return.
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demand → say → pattern
Entrepreneurs are finding their way around tariffs
The trade war with the U.S. has prompted some problem-solving among Canadian cleantech startups.
With complex supply chains and export-focused models, cleantechs are vulnerable to being hit by tariffs multiple times as components and finished products cross borders.
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components → find → borders
Some companies, including Mississauga battery maker e-Zinc, are continually recalibrating their supply chains to sidestep added costs.
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companies → include → costs
But others are redesigning their products to avoid components subject to tariffs.
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others → redesign → tariffs
For instance, Aslan Renewables, a Toronto startup that develops modular hydropower plants, was facing a major crisis due to the fact that the company procured a vital element of its system — a $111,000 steel part called a T-intake screen — from a U.S. supplier.
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company → develop → supplier
With no made-in-Canada equivalent available, the company designed a cheaper alternative made of fibreglass instead of metal and had it in production with a local company within two weeks.
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it → make → weeks
“Tariffs forced us to think deeper about our solutions,” says CEO Andrew Murray.
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Murray → force → solutions
“And what came out is a much more sustainable answer.”
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came → come → ?
Smaller, greener data centres emerge
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centres → emerge → ?
Hyperscale data centres have now reached such stratospheric levels of unpopularity that OpenAI has decided to rename them “compute campuses.
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OpenAI → reach → them
A dose of corporate-speak seems unlikely to detoxify the brand for the 68 per cent of Canadians who oppose large AI data centres near their homes.
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who → seem → homes
Top concerns include higher utility bills, excessive water use and light and noise pollution.
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concerns → include → bills
But growing numbers of cleantech entrepreneurs are finding ways to make data centres better neighbours and less damaging to the planet.
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centres → grow → planet
One idea gaining ground is what Jackson calls “niche data centres” that focus on a specific AI application.
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that → gain → application
“I’ve seen some as small as a 40-foot trailer up to the size of a single commercial building,” she says.
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she → see → building
Canadian companies are also making headway in helping data centres use energy and water more efficiently.
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centres → make → energy
In Calgary, Simply Silicon has built a centre that connects to the downtown core’s district heating system.
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that → build → system
The company captures the heat produced by processing chips and uses it to warm the surrounding buildings.
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company → capture → buildings
Wafr Technologies, which has offices in Vancouver and Calgary, has developed a cooling technology that it says can cut energy requirements by up to 80 per cent and water consumption by up to 95 per cent.
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it → have → cent
And Quebec’s XNRGY Climate Systems makes highly efficient heating, ventilation and cooling equipment for data centres and has shipped more than 10,000 units to date.
We’re inching closer to nuclear fusion
Nuclear fusion promises limitless, cheap and carbon-free electricity from the same reaction that powers the sun.
But the technical obstacles to harnessing star power on Earth are formidable.
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obstacles → make → Earth
Fuel needs to be heated to more than 100 million degrees Celsius and held stable long enough for the hydrogen nuclei to fuse into helium.
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nuclei → need → helium
“That’s among the hardest engineering problems ever attempted,” says Zoltan Tompa, partner and team lead at BDC Capital’s ClimateTech Fund.
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Tompa → ’ → Fund
But over the past four years steady progress has been made in moving fusion from a moon shot idea to reality.
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progress → make → reality
“December 2022 was fusion’s Wright Brothers moment,” says Tompa.
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Tompa → say → ?
…and 17 more, not listed.
The Aporia
