Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says a future partnership with Germany will, over the long term, help make Canada a leader in the world’s supply of green energy.
“What we’re really going to talk about, me and the (German) Chancellor, next week is how this partnership between Canada and Germany and Europe in general is going to help us, for decades to come, to ensure that Canada will become an essential supplier of energy to the planet in a carbon-neutral world,” he said on Friday during a visit to the Magdalen Islands.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Prime Minister Trudeau are set to sign a hydrogen accord next week in Stephenville, Newfoundland and Labrador. Mr. Scholz will then be on an official visit to Canada.
A government official who requested anonymity confirmed that a hydrogen agreement would be signed, the culmination of months of talks between the two countries.
Stephenville will be home to a zero-emissions power plant where wind power will be used to produce hydrogen and ammonia for export.
On Friday, Trudeau reiterated that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has heightened the need for an energy transition and to help Europe become less dependent on Russia for energy.
“It’s very true that we don’t have the tools now to help them directly on the scale they would need immediately, but in the years and decades to come, we know that we have to transform our energy resources. We need to decarbonize our oil and gas industry, which we are doing. »
The Prime Minister mentioned hydrogen as a possible energy solution, also mentioning resources used in the composition of batteries, such as lithium.
“We also have investments to make elsewhere: in nuclear power, in electrification […]. We have work to do,” he continued.
The German Chancellor will be in Canada from Sunday to Tuesday. He will notably travel to Montreal and Toronto.