Join every day information updates from CleanTechnica on e-mail. Or observe us on Google Information!

Ontario’s love affair with hydrogen was all the time going to be an costly fling. However now it’s turning right into a full-blown marriage—regardless of all of the warning indicators from older, wiser jurisdictions which have already filed for divorce. The province is doubling the Hydrogen Innovation Fund to $30 million, a tidy sum that would in any other case purchase a fleet of electrical buses, improve grid infrastructure, or—heaven forbid—really cut back emissions within the subsequent 5 years. As an alternative, Ontario’s taxpayers, by way of the Doug Ford Conservative authorities, are throwing cash at a hydrogen dream that’s already wheezing its final breath in locations like Norway and Australia, each of which have been miles forward into the hydrogen for vitality useless finish and at the moment are backing slowly out, with wallets lighter and eyebrows completely raised.

Let’s rewind the tape. Ontario’s hydrogen flirtation formally started in 2022, when the federal government launched its Low-Carbon Hydrogen Technique, proclaiming the province can be a “North American chief” in hydrogen manufacturing, storage, and end-use. The doc was a masterclass in aspirational fluff—brimming with bold targets, imprecise frameworks, and a parade of buzzwords about innovation and vitality independence. It was a political press launch dressed up as coverage, with subsequent to no critical techno-economic modeling behind it. The assumptions embedded within the technique bordered on magical considering: that inexperienced hydrogen prices would quickly decline, that hydrogen would turn out to be a aggressive gasoline for heating and transport, and that Ontario would be capable of export surplus hydrogen regardless of no infrastructure or demand.

One of many evident failures of the technique was its remedy of hydrogen as a Swiss Military knife of decarbonization. Quite than focusing on the handful of hard-to-abate industrial sectors the place hydrogen may make financial and technical sense—reminiscent of metal or fertilizer—the technique proposed mixing hydrogen into pure gasoline grids for heating, utilizing it in long-haul trucking, and even injecting it into gasoline generators for electrical energy era. Every of those use instances has been studied to demise by critical analysts globally, and the consensus is evident: hydrogen is woefully inefficient for many of them. Burning hydrogen for warmth wastes electrical energy. Utilizing it in transport competes poorly with batteries. And injecting it into pure gasoline techniques creates new security, supplies compatibility, and emissions challenges. These weren’t simply harmless oversights. They have been coverage selections made in full view of a long time of scientific literature and up to date worldwide expertise.

What’s worse is what number of stakeholders appeared the opposite manner—or actively enabled the fantasy. Enbridge, Canada’s pure gasoline and pipeline behemoth, was a vocal supporter of mixing hydrogen into distribution networks, which conveniently extends the lifespan of its belongings and enterprise mannequin. The utility business at giant had each purpose to play alongside: hydrogen mixing meant continued justification for capital expenditures, rate-base development, and infrastructure safety in a world slowly transferring towards electrification. In the meantime, native producers and development companies nodded enthusiastically at pilot challenge funding, even when not one of the tasks had viable long-term economics. The schools and analysis establishments, a lot of which depend on provincial funding and partnerships, stayed largely silent somewhat than elevating technical crimson flags. This wasn’t only a failure of coverage design—it was a systemic failure of governance and institutional accountability.

Then got here the Niagara Falls pilot, essentially the most tangible product of the 2022 technique—a 20 MW electrolyzer beneath growth subsequent to the Sir Adam Beck hydroelectric plant. In idea, it might use clear electrical energy to make inexperienced hydrogen. In observe, it uncovered simply how unmoored the technique was from fundamental logistical and business realities. There was no close by industrial buyer for the hydrogen. There was no pipeline. There was no refueling infrastructure. So, the plan turned to truck the hydrogen—at nice expense and emissions—over 150 kilometers to Halton Hills to be burned in a pure gasoline peaker plant. That’s taking zero-carbon electrical energy, changing it right into a leaky, hard-to-handle gasoline at 70% effectivity, trucking it utilizing diesel semis, then burning it in a mixed cycle plant at 55% effectivity. Finest case state of affairs, you get again 30% of your authentic vitality—after spending a fortune. That’s not decarbonization. That’s a Rube Goldberg machine powered by taxpayer cash.

The Niagara pilot wasn’t an aberration—it was the logical consequence of a technique constructed on wishful considering and captured by vested pursuits. It prioritized bulletins over outcomes, ribbon-cuttings over rigorous evaluation. And now, as an alternative of reassessing, Ontario is doubling down—throwing good cash after dangerous, whereas the remainder of the world quietly backs away.

The doubling of the fund introduced in March 2025 is a baffling transfer, particularly contemplating the teachings pouring in from nations that sprinted down this highway years in the past. Norway, not precisely a local weather slouch, just lately restructured its complete industrial decarbonization technique to pivot away from hydrogen for vitality. Their extremely publicized hydrogen ferry—the MF Hydra—has been hit with provide points and rising prices and now will get hydrogen transported in diesel vehicles from 1,300 km away, and their goals of piping blue hydrogen from offshore fields to Germany have quietly evaporated within the chilly North Sea air. Norway has seen the sunshine: hydrogen is a boutique answer, not a cornerstone of vitality techniques.

Australia gives one other stark cautionary story. At one level, Canberra dreamed of turning the sun-drenched Outback right into a hydrogen export juggernaut, sending inexperienced molecules to Japan and South Korea. The advertising and marketing sizzle was actual. However then got here the receipts. The $750 million Port Pirie inexperienced hydrogen plant was shelved in early 2025, citing sky-high capital prices and no assured patrons. Across the similar time, Queensland’s flagship Central Hydrogen Challenge requested for a further billion {dollars} in authorities assist earlier than being axed altogether. Australia, as soon as the poster youngster for inexperienced hydrogen exports, is now specializing in home inexperienced business as an alternative—particularly inexperienced iron and ammonia, the place hydrogen use really is smart.

And right here’s the place Ontario’s technique actually begins to appear like a slow-motion automobile crash. Australia and Norway have been on the entrance of the hydrogen line and have now taken their losses and walked away. In the meantime, Ontario—by no means a worldwide chief in hydrogen tech—is simply getting warmed up. The province talks about defending jobs and sparking innovation, however $30 million might electrify plenty of faculty buses or construct megawatts of solar-plus-storage that really decrease payments and emissions. As an alternative, it’s being sprayed throughout pilot tasks with no clear off-take, no business scaling path, and no impartial lifecycle emissions accounting. Keep in mind, hydrogen leaks and has a GWP20 37 instances worse than carbon dioxide.

There’s additionally the inconvenient fiscal actuality. Electrolytic hydrogen from clear electrical energy clocks in at $5 to $9 per kilogram in Canada proper now when it’s performed in any respect, normally the excessive finish. That’s earlier than transport, storage, and conversion losses. Mixing it right into a gasoline turbine system for electrical energy era yields maybe 30–35% round-trip effectivity—much less if you happen to embrace trucking emissions and liquefaction losses. We’re burning $100 of electrical energy to get $30 of it again, simply so we are able to slap a inexperienced sticker on a gray downside. That’s not innovation. That’s thermodynamic malpractice.

The hydrogen foyer loves to border this as an funding sooner or later, however the true future—the fiscally accountable one—is already rising elsewhere. Direct electrification is cheaper. Warmth pumps are rolling out throughout Ontario houses. Battery-electric buses are slashing working prices for transit authorities. Grid modernization and demand response provide 5-to-1 payback ratios. Hydrogen, in distinction, continues to guzzle public cash with all of the grace of a Hummer in a downtown bike lane, at the least those that also exist after the Ford authorities, once more, determined to pay companies like Stantec to tear them up.

Ontario is selecting to disregard the teachings from nations that moved sooner and failed more durable. It’s romanticizing a molecule that is smart as an industrial feedstock for refining oil, ammonia manufacturing and possibly inexperienced steelmaking. Every thing else is a mirage—particularly long-distance exports and residential heating. This isn’t only a dangerous wager. It’s a failure to learn the room, the market, and the maths.

There’s nonetheless time for Ontario to again out of the cul-de-sac. However each million spent now on dead-end hydrogen pilots is one million not spent on scalable, shovel-ready, low-emissions options. The world has moved on. The province simply hasn’t checked the rear-view mirror—or the invoice.

By Samantha Willis, Biodiversity Guide at Ramboll

In a big step in the direction of world nature restoration, bridging the Nature-Finance hole was on the coronary heart of negotiations in the course of the latest prolonged COP 16 session, which concluded in Rome on the twenty seventh February. The Nature-Finance hole refers back to the shortfall between obtainable funds and the financing wanted to efficiently shield and restore nature successfully, a spot that’s at the moment increasing and is estimated to have grown to an eye-watering $942 billion. As biodiversity continues to say no at an alarming fee, the restoration invoice solely will increase, widening the hole, making it very important that COP 16 results in safe monetary commitments and optimistic motion.

“Nature loss exacerbates local weather change, undermines meals safety and places individuals and communities in danger. We should act quick to reverse biodiversity loss – time just isn’t on our facet” (WWF, 2023)

The Rome assembly was the second chew of the cherry after talks broke down at COP16 in Cali final yr. Nations reaffirmed their commitments to the Kumming-Montreal World Biodiversity Framework’s (KMGBF) strategic imaginative and prescient and world ambition of halting and reversing biodiversity loss by 2030. Implementation was a central subject focussing on monetary useful resource mobilisation and sturdy assessment mechanisms by events. The framework had been ratified on the earlier COP 15, setting plenty of particular targets, together with the goal of defending 30% of the planet’s land and oceans by 2030.

Implementation of those targets over the subsequent 5 years is essential given the monitor file of no objectives set in earlier summits being met. As of October 2024, solely 17.16% of land and eight.4% of marine areas are beneath safety, that means the floor space of protected land should double by 2030.

‘Extra work is required to scale up the protection and to position protected and conserved areas the place they’re most wanted’ (Protected Planet Report, 2024)

The effectiveness of implementation and accountability mechanisms stay a problem when working in the direction of the targets set out within the KMGBF. Gaps stay in precise monetary commitments, and bold targets are but to be realised. Worryingly, greater than half of the world’s nations arrived at COP 16 with no plans to guard 30% of their nature, and solely 44 out of 196 nations submitted their Nationwide Biodiversity Methods and Motion Plans previous to the summit in Colombia final yr. With solely 5 years to double the quantity of protected land, strong commitments and accountability should be prioritised.

Discussions throughout COP 16 didn’t shrink back from these shortcomings, and a framework for accountability was created. The ‘Planning, Monitoring, Reporting, and Evaluate’ (PMRR) framework was established to trace progress in the direction of targets, offering a device to carry nations accountable and handle any gaps in implementation. The framework mandates common monitoring of biodiversity standing and conservation efforts, requiring nations to assemble knowledge on particular indicators to evaluate adjustments to biodiversity. Outcomes should be submitted by nationwide governments in common studies and shall be reviewed throughout future summits. The framework has the potential to enhance and monitor progress in the direction of the framework’s objectives and spotlight any gaps in development.

As essential as elevating cash to assist the bridging of the Nature-Finance hole is, nations should additionally prioritise how this funding shall be mobilised with a view to guarantee the very best outcomes for nature and biodiversity. Throughout the summit in Rome, a Technique for Useful resource Mobilisation was adopted. The Technique recognized plenty of mechanisms wanted for the implementation of the KMGBF, together with a spread of public, nationwide and subnational finance streams and personal and philanthropic assets.

Guaranteeing corporations pay truthful compensation for his or her use of biodiversity and ecosystem companies is a vital step in the direction of bridging the hole and will supply a constant stream of finance that may be funnelled into conservation. A latest instance of pharmaceutical and biotech corporations benefitting enormously from nature is GLP-1 (the essential hormone in Ozempic), which was impressed by the genome of the Gila Monster. The worldwide marketplace for GLP-1 receptor agonists is now valued to be roughly $53.46 billion in weight reduction and diabetes remedies.

A significant growth in the direction of this objective is the Cali Fund for the truthful and equitable sharing of advantages from the usage of Digital Sequence Data (DSI) on Genetic Sources – the place genetic knowledge are saved and shared digitally, typically essential for scientific analysis and biotechnology growth. The fund goals to gather contributions (0.1% of income or 1% of income) from biotech corporations benefitting from DSI from native species. Funds akin to this are a chance for biodiversity wealthy nations – typically growing nations – to see advantages from the usage of genomes sourced from their ecosystems.

‘The frenzy to entry the gold mine of genetic knowledge should not depart behind the communities who shield these genetic assets, that’s the place the Cali Fund is an actual sport changer’ (Elizabeth Mrema, Deputy Government of UNEP, 2025)

The results for environmental justice and social impacts are additionally essential to the equitable sharing of wealth from pure assets. As reported by the UN, Indigenous individuals personal, occupy or use as much as 22% of the worldwide land space. Indigenous persons are typically stewards of their land, holding data and knowledge inside their cultures that’s very important to biodiversity conservation. In 2024’s COP 16, a subsidiary physique for Indigenous peoples and native communities (IPLCs) was created to make sure Indigenous voices are heard throughout world biodiversity choices. Positively, half of the funds accrued by the Cali Fund shall be allotted to the Indigenous communities that handle biodiverse ecosystems. Nevertheless, there’s extra to be achieved to make sure Indigenous individuals stay on the coronary heart of conservation. A assessment of the worldwide progress in the direction of the KMGBF’s targets flagged the potential of inequitable governance, with lower than 4% of protected land being ruled by Indigenous individuals and native communities.

It’s clear that buyers and companies should work collectively to bridge the Nature-Finance hole. Blended finance and Public-Non-public Partnerships (PPPs) supply alternatives for companies and governments to work collectively to clear among the hurdles in the best way of nature-based investments. Blended finance is a strategic method that goals to mix public, philanthropic and personal capital to finance initiatives which have environmental advantages and may cut back the perceived high-risk of nature-based investments. PPPs in Nature Finance additionally foster collaboration between governments, companies and monetary establishments, permitting for risk-sharing between private and non-private sectors and enabling large-scale, long-term investments by sharing out danger.

The conclusion of COP 16 in Rome marked a historic second for bridging the Nature-Finance hole, by the deal with monitoring and assessment, new monetary biodiversity pledges, and the inclusion of Indigenous individuals. As governments navigate the subsequent 5 years, the success of those frameworks will rely upon the dedication to safeguarding biodiversity and pure assets for future generations. Whereas governments can outline nationwide plans and create the mechanisms, the message to enterprise and monetary establishments from COP 16 Rome is clearer and stronger, the vast majority of safety and restoration is counting on them to shut the Nature-Finance funding hole.