Sustainable Development and Underexplored Topics in Canada’s Energy Transition

Abstract

Canada’s energy system is undergoing a fundamental shift, which will change how Canadians produce and consume energy. The success of Canada’s energy transition will be influenced by the ability of energy practitioners to manage the tensions and trade-offs in a variety of topics. The purpose of this research was to identify topics that are relevant to Canada’s energy transition and to identify the concepts that energy practitioners are using to manage the tensions and trade-offs in these topics. According to in-depth interviews with Canadian energy practitioners in 2021, the two most important topics in Canada’s energy transition are climate change and reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples. In addition, according to a 2021 focus group with Canadian energy practitioners, three relevant and underexplored topics in Canada’s energy transition are environmental rights, a systemic reduction in energy consumption, and learning from the energy transition in other countries, notably, Germany. These three underexplored topics were studied by completing additional in-depth interviews in 2022 and 2023, and a causal loop analysis in 2023. This research suggests that the concepts of sustainable development and multi-level perspective are complementary, can increase understanding of important and underexplored energy transition topics, and can generate solutions to complex sustainability challenges.