Despite claims of a green energy transition, total fossil fuel use in Canada actually increased by nearly 150% from 1965 to 2024

VANCOUVER—Instead of transitioning away from fossil fuels, new energy sources such as wind and solar have been added on top of fossil fuels, increasing the overall amount of energy available, according to a new series of essays by internationally-recognized climate and environmental analyst Dr. Bjørn Lomborg, published today by the Fraser Institute, an independent, non-partisan Canadian public policy think-tank.

“The idea that there is a green energy transition underway is not borne out by the data. As we have seen throughout history, new sources of energy don’t replace old ones, they are instead added on top of them so that humans have even more energy available to them,” said Elmira Alikabari, director of natural resource policy at the Fraser Institute and coordinator of the project.

“This fundamental misunderstanding about the true state of our climate generally—and the realities of new energy sources more specifically—has led to a number of costly policy errors like promoting solar and wind, and mandating transitions to EVs.”

The latest essays in the series, published today, explore popular claims surrounding wind and solar energy, electric vehicles and the green energy transition. Specifically:

• Wind and Solar Power Are Unreliable and Therefore Expensive: The more a country relies on solar and wind, the higher electricity prices become for both households and businesses. In nations with little or no solar and wind, the weighted average price sits around 16 Canadian cents per kilowatt-hour (kWh). For every additional 10 percentage points of solar and wind in the electricity mix, prices rise by slightly more than three cents.
• Electric Cars Do Little for the Climate: Manufacturing EVs generates emissions—especially producing the battery—which requires a large amount of energy, mostly achieved with coal in China. Just as importantly, the carbon footprint of an electric vehicle depends heavily on how the electricity used to charge it is produced.
• The Reality of the Energy Transition: Not Happening: Over the past half-century, the global energy produced from oil and coal has doubled, while hydro power has tripled, and gas has quadrupled all the while there’s been an explosion in the use of nuclear, solar and wind.

“Canadians, and indeed people around the world, have often been misled by false claims about the realities of climate policies,” Aliakbari said.

“When people understand the true costs and trade-offs of the climate policies being pursued by governments, they’re better able to assess whether they will actually work or not.”

Climate Change: A fact-based assessment of costs, trade-offs, and results is a new multimedia research and educational project by the Fraser Institute in collaboration with Dr. Lomborg’s Copenhagen Consensus. It offers Canadians a data-driven analysis of the real risks posed by climate change and measures the substantial costs and trade-offs that accompany many climate policies.

Media Contact:
Elmira Aliakbari, Director of Natural Resource Policy
Fraser Institute

To arrange media interviews or for more information, please contact:
Drue MacPherson, Fraser Institute
604-688-0221 ext.721
drue.macpherson@fraserinstitute.org