Exploring economic opportunities in Canada's oil and gas endowed region under net zero policy

In exploring the effects of Canada's net zero target, energy-economy researchers have primarily focused on the negative economic effects of greenhouse gas reductions, although they have shown some possible upsides to the energy transition, notably in renewables, energy efficiency, and zero-emission end-uses. Depending on the region, economic activity triggered by the energy transition could be much greater, but because of the speculative nature of such activities, researchers have left many possibilities unexamined. I use an energy-economy model called gTech to explore the 1) effects of net zero policy in Canada's oil and gas endowed region, and 2) potential economic opportunities for the region during the energy transition by promoting growth in emerging energy sources and technologies such as carbon capture and storage, direct air capture, hydrogen produced from natural gas, and mineral mining. I find that an increase in economic activity beyond that shown in other modeling exercises is plausible.