Ahead of the Canada Investment Summit, Carbon Removal Canada and the Canada Cleantech Alliance say Canada has a narrow window to become a global leader in cleantech and carbon removal, and it starts with building both directly into the infrastructure and energy deals now on the table
By the numbers:
- Cleantech: $43.3 billion, or 1.4% of Canadian GDP, from clean technology product activities in 2024
- Cleantech: 224,062 jobs in 2024, across 2,470 pure-play cleantech firms operating in Canada in 2025
- Carbon removal: a projected $78 billion boost to Canadian GDP and 300,000 jobs by 2050
- Carbon removal: $8.8 billion in capital investment and roughly 23,400 combined construction and operational jobs tied to projects already planned across the country
- 27 nation-building initiatives representing more than $192 billion in investment and more than 330,000 jobs have already been referred to Canada’s Major Projects Office, with carbon removal and cleantech having the potential to make these projects all the more economic and impactful.
Toronto, ON, September 10, 2026 – With the world’s largest investors arriving in Toronto next week for the first-ever Canada Investment Summit, Carbon Removal Canada and the Canada Cleantech Alliance (CCTA) are calling on the federal government and international investors to ensure Canadian cleantech and carbon removal solutions are built directly into Canada’s next wave of infrastructure, energy and major industrial projects. This would utilize the country’s investment agenda to not only build infrastructure, but create domestic customers, accelerate commercialization and scale Canadian technologies. Carbon removal is an important and rapidly growing segment within Canada’s broader cleantech ecosystem, with applications spanning mining, energy, forestry and other major industries. The organizations urge policymakers and executives not to miss this generational opportunity to lead in the industries of the future.
The case is grounded in hard numbers. The clean technology sector accounted for $43.3 billion, or 1.4 percent of Canadian GDP, and 224,062 jobs in 2024, with 2,470 pure-play cleantech firms operating across the country in 2025. Cleantech now directly employs more Canadians than several industries traditionally viewed as pillars of the country’s industrial economy, including: automotive, forestry and oil and gas. Carbon removal is on a similar trajectory: Canada now has 95 carbon removal companies with operations and projects in this country, up from 32 just three years ago, and economic analysis projects the sector could boost Canadian GDP by $78 billion and create or support 300,000 jobs by 2050.
In the near term, planned carbon removal projects alone represent $8.8 billion in capital investment and an estimated 11,900 construction and 11,500 operational jobs, according to Carbon Removal Canada’s upcoming State of Canadian Carbon Removal report.
Canadian net-zero solutions
The case for building these sectors into Canada’s infrastructure plans isn’t just economic. UNEP’s Limiting Overshoot report, released earlier this month, confirmed that the world will cross 1.5C of warming, likely within the next few years, and that the path back down now requires both steep emissions cuts and carbon removal at scale, not one or the other.
That’s the same thesis behind Investing in Carbon Removal, an event Carbon Removal Canada is hosting on September 14th in Toronto alongside the Investment Summit. Canada, with its geology, clean energy base, and growing cleantech ecosystem, is positioned to lead on exactly the technologies the UN says the world now needs. Investors and policymakers gathering in Toronto next week cannot overlook that.
Canadian technologies solving industrial challenges
In Thetford Mines, Quebec, Carbon Removal Canada, Frontier, and the local DuGrisAuVert ecosystem launched the world’s first surficial mineralization hub in April, giving companies a testbed to deploy new innovations that can help convert over 400 megatonnes of of legacy mine tailings into a resource worth an estimated $60 to $175 billion, while also recovering critical minerals like nickel, magnesium, and cobalt. In forestry, companies are turning post-wildfire biomass into an economic asset while reducing the risk of future wildfires, the same dual-use, co-benefit model driving both sectors.
Across Canada, cleantech companies are doing the same across energy, mining, manufacturing, buildings, transportation and resource industries, helping major industrial operators reduce energy and material costs, improve productivity, recover valuable resources and lower emissions. These technologies are not separate from Canada’s infrastructure and industrial strategy; they are increasingly part of what makes major projects more productive, competitive and investable.
Canadian cleantech companies are already demonstrating how this can work across major industries. Calgary-based Kathairos Solutions, recognized by the Canada Cleantech Alliance as its Cleantech Project of the Year in 2025, developed a scalable solution that replaces methane used to power pneumatic equipment at remote oil and gas sites with liquid nitrogen. A project supported through the Clean Resource Innovation Network helped take the technology from six operating well sites to 1,500 in just two years. Today, the technology is deployed at thousands of sites across North America, demonstrating how Canadian cleantech can help established industries reduce emissions while improving the performance and competitiveness of existing infrastructure.
Building at home, competing globally
A CCTA survey conducted in early September found that among cleantech company respondents, 68 percent identified commercialization and scale-up financing as a priority response to trade uncertainty, while 57 percent called for greater procurement of Canadian cleantech. Only 29 percent prioritized tariff relief. The findings reinforce the importance of building resilience by creating more opportunities for Canadian technologies at home while helping companies diversify into new international markets. Canada’s major infrastructure and energy investments offer an immediate opportunity to create domestic customers, strengthening Canadian companies at home while helping them compete globally.
Prime Minister Mark Carney has identified diversifying trade partnerships abroad as another key priority, including a goal of doubling Canada’s non-U.S. exports over the next decade. Cleantech and carbon removal are positioned to create good-paying jobs in exactly the skilled trades and technical roles exposed to that trade disruption, while opening new export markets beyond the United States.
Quotes
“Carbon removal isn’t a standalone industry competing for investment dollars. It’s a layer that runs underneath and alongside the rest of Canada’s industrial ambitions, turning liabilities into assets and making hard-to-abate sectors like mining, forestry, and energy more attractive to the international capital we’re trying to attract,” said Na’im Merchant, Executive Director of Carbon Removal Canada.
“Cleantech isn’t a side conversation to Canada’s industrial buildout. It’s already a $43-billion part of our economy, supporting more than 224,000 jobs across the country. The opportunity now is to use the major projects Canada is building to deploy Canadian technologies at home, help our companies scale, and create the reference customers they need to compete globally. If we’re going to build big again in Canada, we should also be building Canadian innovation into those projects,” said Lynn Côté, Executive Director of the Canada Cleantech Alliance.
About the Canada Cleantech Alliance
The Canada Cleantech Alliance (CCTA) is the national voice of Canada’s clean technology sector. Founded in 2016, CCTA is a coalition of 22 cleantech industry associations and accelerators representing over 2,000 cleantech manufacturers, innovators, investors, industry adopters, and researchers across the country.
About Carbon Removal Canada
Carbon Removal Canada is an independent non-profit accelerating the responsible scale-up of carbon removal technologies through policy advocacy grounded in rigorous research, market development, and connecting the right people to the right information.
Media Contact
Corey Black, Director of Communications, Carbon Removal Canada, corey@carbonremoval.ca
