WWF-International released a study today ranking the cleantech market activities of countries around the world. The report predicts that by 2020 the cleantech industry will be worth $2.45 trillion, ranking as the third-largest global industry behind automobiles and electronics.

According to the 44-country ranking, measured by cleantech sales as a percentage of GDP, the Top 3 countries are Denmark, Brazil and Germany. China ranked sixth. The U.S. ranked 19th, just one position behind the United Kingdom. On the bottom half of the list are Australia, ranked 28th, and Canada, ranked 31st. Keith Stewart at WWF said the results come as a warning to Canada. “This report shows that Canada is far behind countries like the U.S. and China in investing in green technologies, in real and relative terms,” he said. “You can be sure the Chinese economy will not sit still while we sit on our hands.”

Stewart said it doesn’t help that come the end of January 2010 a Canadian federal incentive program designed to promote renewable energy development will run out of budgeted funds. While there is talk of re-charging the fund next year there is still likely to be a major funding gap, creating the kind of bust-boom cycle that once held back the U.S. wind and solar markets. Have we not learned from past mistakes?

Okay, to be clear from the start the “fund” mentioned in the headline isn’t just for cleantech ventures but also companies in the life sciences and digital media. That said, the “Emerging Technologies Fund” announced today by John Wilkinson, Ontario’s minister of research and innovation, could prove effective if administered properly.

The Ontario government has created the $250-million, five-year fund to help ventures based in the province navigate through the dreaded “Valley of Death” that far too often sucks the life out of companies poised for great things but incapable financially of delivering. It’s essentially a co-investment fund, based on a model out of Scotland, whereby the government will match, dollar for dollar, any funding of Ontario-based companies that comes from qualified venture capitalists and angel investors. Nifty. (more…)

The mainstream business press, always eager to say “We told you so” and “history will repeat itself,” appears quite eager to announce the demise of cleantech and all the associated buzz it carries. The bubble is bursting, they say. The return to cheap oil will kill the green movement, they declare. They point to some weakling companies in the cleantech sector that are struggling, or to the dramatic drop in sector stock prices, and say cleantech’s days are numbered. A front-page business story today in Canada’s Globe and Mail features the headline: “Has the sun set on cleantech?” Apparently financial investors are giving up on cleantech and, like the dot-com bubble, it’s all about to burst.

Such pronouncements are getting rather tired. (more…)

There have been a number of good stories and blog postings about the extent to which the credit crunch and its economic downside will hurt renewable energy projects and act as a drag on cleantech financing. Here’s my own take on how things are playing out in Ontario. (more…)

Happy Thanksgiving, Canada! The world can be a crazy place, but we do — in the big picture — have much to be thankful for. Enjoy the time with family and friends, and a week of turkey dinner leftovers.

Today I’ll just post a link to my Clean Break column, which argues that green-minded Canadians heading to the polls tomorrow would be best to vote for the federal Liberals if they hope to see any action on climate change and development of a cleaner, more energy-efficient economy. Now is the time to begin taxing pollution and using that money to tackle poverty, stimulate the economy, and ultimately help Canadian households and businesses operate more efficiently, while at the same time accelerating green innovation that could serve us at home and others abroad.

From the perspective of a green-technology advocate, one could just as easily support the Green Party and, to a lesser extent, NDP on this issue, but the Liberals are the most likely to defeat the federal Conservatives, which have proven in their two years of power that they don’t take green job creation or climate change seriously. This is an important federal election, coming at a time when even the U.S. is likely to vote in a new president — i.e. Obama — who has declared energy and green-economy building as his top priority.