Providing a growing global population with abundant, safe, affordable and sustainable food and energy are among the defining challenges of this decade. The Global population is expected to grow from just under 8 billion in 2022 to over 8.5 billion in 2030 and 9.7 billion in 2050. Given the scale and the urgency of the transformation required to ensure a sustainable future, incremental change isn’t going to be enough.
To meet these challenges, Canada must mobilize innovative research and technology development. It is through the commercialization of science and technology that advancements materialize. Training and retaining highly qualified people to bring ideas out of the lab and into practice, along with effective pathways to support the development of those new ideas is crucial.
Energy and agriculture are often labelled as traditional industries with limited innovation or technology adoption. Nothing could be further from the truth. The reality is that both of these industries are experiencing extraordinary change and with Canada’s immense natural resources, capacity to provide energy and food to markets worldwide we have a generational opportunity to be game changers globally.
Advances in science and new technologies have seen the agriculture sector feed a global population that has doubled to 8 billion people in the last 50 years, with Canada’s agriculture sector playing a significant role in that. Canada is one of the world’s largest food exporters, having exported nearly $82.2 billion in agriculture and food products in 2021. In addition to contributing to a global societal need, agriculture is one of the sectors with the highest economic growth potential in Canada. For Canada to remain at the cutting edge of this new agriculture revolution, play a leadership role in solving impending global food shortages and realize the full economic potential of the sector, we will need new skills and technology.
As the fifth largest energy producer in the world, Canada is a net exporter of oil and natural gas. In its 2021 report, the International Energy Agency Stated Policies Scenario projects total global energy demand to increase 21% by 2040. Canada has set a target to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 40-45% by 2030 (from 2005 levels) and has joined over 120 countries in committing to achieving net zero emissions by 2050. Improving the rate of energy technology innovation will be critical to ensuring a stable, affordable and secure supply of energy for the growing population as well as supporting a long-term global transition to a low-carbon environment.
Today, the intersection of agriculture, energy, the environment and human health is increasingly apparent. Research disciplines in these areas have begun to take a less siloed, more collaborative approach to our overlapping challenges in achieving a sustainable future for the planet.
Canada has an enviable opportunity to be a global leader in addressing some of our most pressing challenges. To realize this opportunity, we need to embrace the disruptive capacity of our post-secondary institutions working with the private sector to commercialize the advances in science and technology to catalyze the disruptive level of change we require.
The Creative Destruction Lab is part of a growing innovation ecosystem in Canada committed to increasing the rate of commercialization, embracing innovation and better ways of doing and creating both economic and social value. CDL and the community it has built is an example of what can happen when diverse groups of curious individuals come together with a vision for the future.
The preceding article was informed by responses from CDL-Rockies’ Mentors, experienced individuals from industry and academia who are the backbone of the CDL Rockies program.
