Electricity emissions are rising in Canada. Indigenous communities could help

Welcome to our weekly newsletter where we highlight environmental trends and solutions that are moving us to a more sustainable world.

Hi, it's Inayat from CBC's climate unit. Electricity emissions in Canada are, surprisingly, on the rise, as provinces turn to natural gas to feed rising energy needs. I looked at one possible solution: expanding Indigenous co-ownership of renewable energy as a way to get these facilities built quickly, without the kind of opposition that slows down project approvals.

This week:

• Electricity emissions are rising in Canada. Indigenous communities could help
• The Big Picture: Melting Florida governor
• Ski resort gears up for early training season thanks to snow-saving technology

A Neoen battery storage facility in Hornsdale, Australia, which is located near a wind farm. The company is building a battery like this one near Eagle Lake First Nation in Ontario. (Submitted by Neoen)

Canada's electricity is famously clean: hydroelectric power from the country's wealth of gushing rivers provides almost all the electricity in some provinces, and Ontario hosts many of the world's largest nuclear power plants.

But a new analysis of Canada's 2025 greenhouse gas emissions shows Canada's emissions rose by one per cent last year. 

The Canadian Climate Institute, which did the analysis, said the main contributor was that more natural gas is being burned to heat buildings and produce electricity, not the result experts wanted at a time when Canada should be electrifying more of its economy and making that electricity clean.

It's clear that Canada isn't producing enough clean electricity to help cut fossil fuel use in homes and industries. 

"The government wants to double electricity supply. We know that's where we need to go," said Ross Linden-Fraser, acting director of the 440 Megatonnes research project at the Canadian Climate Institute.

"[But] it's hard to electrify if you don't have enough electricity."

In 2026, however, there have been some encouraging moves on renewables. Ontario's electricity regulator conducted a historic procurement process this year where more than a dozen new solar and wind projects won contracts by being more cost-competitive than projects based on fossils. 

The province also conducted its largest procurement of battery storage. All the projects approved were 50 per cent owned by local Indigenous communities. 

I decided to speak to one of those communities, Eagle Lake First Nation in northwestern Ontario, because it's an interesting contrast to how the push for fossil fuel projects across Canada is drawing criticism from First Nations and groups.

"To have a project that aligns with our traditional law and our values just goes a long way," said Daniel Morriseau, director of strategic partnerships and alliances at Eagle Lake First Nation.

"This clean energy project — I mean, there's certainly going to be things we're looking at mitigating still — but it does relieve some of those pressures that come from some of the other more extractive, non-renewable projects."

The Ojibwe community has partnered with Neoen, a French company that's investing heavily in renewables in Canada, to build a battery storage plant with a capacity of 200 megawatts or eight hours. The facility will store electricity from Ontario's power grid during periods of lower demand and release it to the grid when demand peaks. 

That's essential as more solar and wind is added to the grid, ensuring that power is available even when there isn't enough sunlight or wind to feed those energy plants.

"Battery projects really don't use any water for their operations and they don't generate any emissions, so the impact on the environment is very low during the operations of the project," said Benoit Pinot de Villechenon, Neoen's province director in Ontario who is working with Eagle Lake on building the project.

Apart from Eagle Lake, Neoen has two solar projects that will also be co-owned by First Nations, including one that could become the largest solar farm in Ontario. Indigenous clean energy projects have seen a rapid increase in the past few years, as more communities see benefits of hosting clean electricity and battery storage. 

There are more than 350 clean energy projects co-owned by First Nations across Canada, generating about $441 million annually for those communities. By 2031, 24 per cent of Canada's electricity is expected to be generated through clean energy projects with Indigenous involvement, according to industry group Indigenous Clean Energy.

Morriseau told me about the Manito Aki Inakonigaawin, the codified legal system of the Anishinaabe Nation in the Treaty 3 area (28 First Nations including Eagle Lake, covering northwestern Ontario and eastern Manitoba), that governs the community's obligations towards protecting the natural environment. It requires direct participation from First Nations for major projects, something that they have achieved with a 50 per cent equity stake in the battery storage facility.

"There's a big difference between being an equity partner in a project and just being consulted on a project," Morriseau said. 

And that means the project is more likely to be finished on time, he said, rather than getting caught up in conflict.

"[As an equity partner] you really get to have a say in how that project's going to be developed, to ensure it does respect community values and is done in a way that the Nation can support."

The battery storage project is expected to begin construction by 2028 and will be operational by 2030, according to Neoen.

—Inayat Singh

Old issues of What on Earth? are here. The CBC News climate page is here. 

Check our podcast and radio show. In our latest episode: Mountains of sargassum seaweed are choking Caribbean beaches. It's so dangerous it's shut down a school. Scientists point the finger at climate change, but solutions are on the horizon. We head to the tropics to learn about a WALL-E- inspired robot vacuum and a seaweed-powered car 

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(CBC)

Reader feedback

Last week, Alexandra Mae Jones looked at the number of American eels that die passing through the turbines of hydro dams on the St. Lawrence River and a new blade design hoping to change that. 

Tom Stobie wrote: "Your fine article did not mention anything about the importance of the eel migration to the traditional subsistence fishery of the Mi'kmaw and Malecite that preceded the European incursion. Juvenile eels, known as elvers, used to be trapped in great numbers in Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and in Maine. The natural populations were sustained for many years until their migration routes were disrupted by the St. Lawrence Seaway hydro dams, constructed to great fanfare in my youth and opened to a ribbon-cutting ceremony by the Queen — Ontario Hydro's disservice to a sustainable eel population and the fishery it supported."

The American eel has historically been important to Indigenous groups along the St. Lawrence River and seaway, which have fished and lived alongside the eels since time immemorial. For years, Indigenous groups have been raising alarms about the declining eel populations in the region, which is partially caused by hydro dams. When Canada declined to list the American eel under the Species at Risk Act, 13 years after the species was assessed as "threatened" by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada, many First Nations people criticized the decision. 

Mi'kmaw fishers have long participated in the fishing of adult eel, or katew, as well as the elvers. Traditionally, eel was eaten in a broth as a baby's first meal and as an elder's final meal. The declining population of eels has led to conflict between Mi'kmaw fishers exercising their treaty right to fish — established by the 1999 Marshall Decision by the Supreme Court of Canada — and Fisheries and Oceans Canada applying broad restrictions on elver fishing. Some Mi'kmaw communities have expressed concerns about elver fishing amid the population drop in eels. Last year, the federal government reallocated 50 per cent of the harvesting quota for elvers to First Nations in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, but three Mi'kmaw communities created their own protest fishery to harvest elvers on their own terms without federal regulations.

The fight for American eels also stretches to the Ottawa River. In 2024, a First Nation in western Quebec, Kitigan Zibi Anishinābeg, called for safety improvements at a hydro dam on the Ottawa River near the Ontario-Quebec border, arguing that endangering the eel goes against Algonquins' legal rights to fish the species and their right to be involved in decisions that affect them. 

Got questions, comments or just want to share something? Write us at whatonearth@cbc.ca (and send photos there, too!)

The Big Picture: Melting Florida governor

(350 Action/Uncommon Creative Studio)

Last week, climate activists from 350 Action and artists from Uncommon Creative Studio unveiled a life-sized metal statue of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis that slowly dripped and melted into puddles in the heat of Tallahassee, Fla. It was cast in gallium, a metal with a melting point of 29.8 C, a temperature threshold that the activists note Florida will cross more and more often. As the statue melted, it revealed a skull and bones beneath the metal "flesh."

In 2024, DeSantis signed a bill that deleted references to climate change from Florida state laws, despite the fact that the state has been heavily impacted by heat, flooding, sea level rise and storms that are worsening with climate change. His term ends in 2027, and state residents will vote for his successor on Nov. 3. The activists created the artwork to urge and remind voters to choose climate-conscious candidates.

— Emily Chung

Hot and bothered: Provocative ideas from around the web

• Fish meal fed to farmed seafood is prone to spontaneous combustion, a condition that caused deadly fires on ships during the 1960s. The solution? Adding a carcinogenic fire retardant that is now banned in some countries, but not the U.S., Japan or South Korea.

• A growing network of farmers, bakers, distillers, brewers, pasta makers and customers in Colorado are turning to unique, ancient grains and legumes such as amaranth, purple barley and tepary beans for their drought resistance. 

• A woman in India found a small red "worm" in her well. It turned out to be a new species of fish that makes its home in underground aquifers.

• Electric boats seem like a great idea, but going back to shore to charge is a pain. Be Giant profiles a solution called a "Lilypad" from a B.C. company.

Sun Peaks gears up for early ski training season thanks to snow-saving technology

A Snow Secure insulated blanket is set up over a large pile of snow at Sun Peaks. (Submitted by Sun Peaks)

While ski hills everywhere wait for the weather gods to deliver the white stuff, ski racers from around the world will soon converge on the Sun Peaks ski resort in the B.C. Interior thanks to a novel system that preserved last year's snow.

Over the weekend, three piles, each containing 17,000 cubic metres of saved snow, were unveiled and are now being spread around the mountain's Nancy Greene International Race Centre. Officials say it's enough to cover the equivalent of 20 football fields of ski runs, which are expected to be race-ready in a few weeks.

"We will probably have between 20 and 30 different teams — about 8,000 participants — ... when the race centre opens up" on Nov. 6, said Tim Foster, chief of mountain operations at Sun Peaks, a popular ski destination about 40 kilometres northeast of Kamloops as the crow flies.

Sun Peaks is the first mountain in Canada to adopt the technology from Finnish company Snow Secure, which involves plowing snow into huge piles in the spring and then covering those piles with an insulated blanket that preserves up to 80 per cent of the volume through the summer and fall.

Dustin Koepke, program director of the Sun Peaks Alpine Club, says that getting a jump on the ski racing season will be a big boost for his athletes, who might otherwise have gone to Europe to train.

"It's a huge plus where a lot of teams don't get snow until December. It gives us a month advantage where we can be skiing early."

WATCH | How Sun Peaks uses stored snow to help athletes train:

How Sun Peaks uses stored snow to help athletes train

November 16, 2025|

Duration

2:19

Sun Peaks will host ski racers from across Canada, the U.S. and Japan once the race centre opens.

Although new to Sun Peaks last year, Snow Secure has been used widely in Europe for decades.

Environment Canada is predicting a significantly milder-than-average winter across much of Canada with a super El Niño event bringing mild Pacific air, which reduces overall seasonal snowfall.

— CBC News and Shelley Joyce

Thanks for reading. If you have questions, criticisms or story tips, please send them to whatonearth@cbc.ca.