Carbon contracts for difference are effectively a public backstop for Canada’s carbon pricing regime. The contracts might be used to guarantee a floor price for carbon credits or to lock in the scheduled increase to the carbon price over the next decade, regardless of future government decisions.
Business groups have also been pushing Trudeau and Freeland to speed up the launch of clean-energy tax credits that were promised in this year’s federal budget. “The decisions that are being made today are ultimately the ones that will be coming online just before 2030,” he said, referring to Canada’s goal of reducing emissions by 40 to 45 per cent below 2005 levels by the end of this decade.