Growing Sustainably

Direction: Stuck

Risk: High

Pace: Lagging

A greener economy to enhance our economic competitiveness

We need to ensure our policy path is sustainable and not focused on short-term results that threaten better outcomes for us in the future.

That means putting the environment at the forefront of policy. Businesses and governments must ramp up efforts to reduce the nation’s carbon footprint.

But sustainable growth isn’t just about the environment. It also means avoiding easy and quick fixes—like too-fast immigration. It means minimizing external imbalances. It means being a good partner to our allies. And it means putting an emphasis on productivity.

Growth at a glance

Aspirational targets have been set across the three pillars to attain long term, inclusive and sustainable growth.

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GHG emissions per unit of GDP

In 2021, Canada pledged to reduce its 2005 GHG emissions by 40‑45 per cent by 2030 under the Paris Agreement. According to the latest government data available, Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions were 694 megatonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent in 2023, down 6 megatonnes from a year earlier and a drop of more than 50 megatonnes from 2019.

Recalculations are performed annually on Canada’s previously reported greenhouse gas emissions estimates to reflect updates to source data and estimation methodology. Recalculations in this latest release of the indicator have resulted in lower emissions for all years (one to two per cent lower).

Source: World Bank

Climate change

Primary energy supply from zero-carbon sources (%)

Canada’s renewable energy consumption is higher than most peers and OECD members aside from selected Scandinavian countries. Canada’s share of electricity production from renewables is higher than most peers and OECD members besides selected Scandinavian countries, thanks to hydro and nuclear.

Clean-tech contribution to GDP ($)

Canada’s clean-tech contribution to GDP has increased since 2020. However, there is a long way to achieve the ambitious targets set by Economic Strategy Tables.

Economic Resilience

Ranking for global competitivenesss

Canada’s global competitiveness ranking over the years has gone down, from 8 in 2020 to 19 in 2024 according to the International Institute for Management Development (IMD) World Competitiveness Center.

From this year forward, Ranking for Global Competitiveness by IMD will replace the previous KPI (Ranking for Financing of SMEs), which has not been updated by the World Economic Forum data source since 2019.

Current trade account

Canada is slipping away slightly from achieving its goal of keeping the current account balance around 0 per cent of GDP.

A rebound in commodity prices since the pandemic has led to a considerable improvement in our balance of payments with the rest of the world. In the four quarters through the end of September, Canada ran a current account deficit of $7.2 billion. That represents about 0.2 per cent of GDP, effectively a balanced position.

Households with access to broadband (%)

Canada is on the right track to improve rural access to high-speed broadband annually, but gaps remain.Rural Canada continues to face significant systemic challenges. According to the CRTC, 22 per cent of rural communities still lack access to unlimited high-speed internet—an essential service in today’s economy.

Rural communities hold the key to Canada’s resilience and long-term stability, but their success depends on decisive action. Bridging the rural-urban divide requires targeted investments in infrastructure, businesses and services.