The Power of Vision and Collaborative Action

• May 28, 2024
• Susan McGeachie

The Global Climate Finance Accelerator’s recent research through Rotman’ School of Management’sAccelerating Climate Finance experiential learning program set out to identify market and policy barriers to advancing climate solutions. We found that policy and market solutions exist. It is an enabling culture that moves them forward. Designed well, bottom-up initiatives in cities and regions can be engines of innovation, driving our much-needed economy-wide sectoral transformations and economic growth.

For example: Since joining the  Western Climate Initiative with California in 2014, Quebec has cultivated a culture of energy transition and innovation with substantial investments in the battery value chain, incentives for electric vehicle adoption, and a plan to install new clean electricity capacity and recruit qualified workers.  

Most notable in New York last week was the result of Quebec’s efforts over nearly a decade to attract global investment in support of its goals. In a historic investment from the U.S. government, the province has successfully secured capital for its critical minerals sector and the development of a tech corridor between Quebec and the state of new York.

This strategic imperative links New York City and Montreal as cross-border collaborators in fostering an employment growth-oriented cleantech ecosystem. Neither city fell upon these opportunities by accident. Their success demonstrates the importance of vision and persistence.

New York City launched its plan to strengthen the economy, combat climate change, and enhance quality of life in 2007. Ignoring the threat, and eventual realization of federal administration changes, the Plan was updated in 2015 with a continued focus on sustainability, equity, resilience, and growth. Recognizing that divisiveness and negativity accompanying the pandemic were putting targeted transformation outcomes at risk, a consortium of corporate, investment and entrepreneurial firms launched the Partnership for New York City in 2023 to collaboratively build a narrative for every citizen – students, trades, professionals – to unlock the full economic potential of New York.

By harnessing culture’s potential to unify, inspire, narrate, and sustain, New York and Quebec illustrate how a deliberate, long-term strategy can create a more cohesive and proactive community, ready to face future challenges together.

For the rest of Canada, we must first reverse a culture in peril, exacerbated by today’s pernicious information sharing platforms with newsfeeds designed to continually reinforce specific, existing worldviews and rampant “burnout fuelled by increased work stress (in conjunction with) a perpetual feed of negative information…that can inflame the polarization of political discourse.”

Much of the news today is negative, with a seeming inability to agree on a national course of action, from fiscal policy to productivity to the looming imperative of a low carbon transition.

But there’s hope. Canadian cities have long attracted diverse talents and minds. There is no shortage of U.S. cities with which to create cross-border partnerships. Community-led efforts like the University of Toronto’sClimate Positive Energy and other regional initiatives create learning labs that can – and do – transcend borders to build networks in which people can explore, test, debate, and collaborate. Funding vehicles such as the Canada Growth Fund can co-invest with US funding partners to accelerate the deployment of identified technologies. Canada’s new Indigenous loan guarantee program can attract new investment for projects in Indigenous Nations and communities.

Regional and federal governments can amplify the effects of these and other initiatives by crafting and reinforcing a national vision underpinned by coordinated policy and action. A compelling, positive vision enables citizens to see beyond the intricate web of interdependent policy actions and understand how coordinated, on the ground efforts support broader environmental, societal, and economic goals. Garnering broad-based support will facilitate transformative change.

A key success factor in Canada is fostering collaboration between provinces and territories. The ability to do so hinges on maintaining a long-term commitment from societal actors beyond political cycles in the difficult negotiations and compromises to come.

In the words of New York’s Partnership CEO: “We have to fight for the things we love.”

​We love Canada.

Susan McGeachie is co-founder and managing partner at Global Climate Finance Accelerator, which convenes partnerships across business, finance, government, and academia on strategies, policies, procedures, and tools to finance climate solutions.