The Climate Cycle

Climate Tech Canada

The companies remaking energy, food, and industry are being built right now. The Climate Cycle goes deep inside Canadian climate tech, talking to the founders, investors, and thinkers building the industries of tomorrow. Hosted by Justin Reist, founder of Climate Tech Canada.

  1. What It Takes to Make Carbon Pricing Stick in Canada with Clean Prosperity

    6월 18일

    What It Takes to Make Carbon Pricing Stick in Canada with Clean Prosperity

    Canada's industrial carbon pricing system just went through its biggest redesign since it launched, trading ambition for stability. Depending on who you ask, the deal is either a major unlock - or a major step backwards. We sat down with Etienne Rainville, VP for Central Canada at Clean Prosperity, a Canadian think tank that's been one of the most consistent voices for market-based climate policy. He's been making the case for carbon contracts for difference and was actively engaged as the Ottawa-Alberta negotiations unfolded. We unpack what the certainty-price trade-off really means, how it impacts investment decisions - and where climate policy goes from here. What we cover: Why the industrial carbon market was broken - and what the gap between the $95 headline price and $30 trading price actually meansWhat changed: the new headline price schedule, the price floor, and how carbon contracts for difference workWhy the floor alone isn't enough - and what CCfDs do that regulation can'tWhat this means for founders and investors evaluating capital commitmentsWhether renegotiating the system undermines its long-term credibilityHow this deal impacts provinces beyond AlbertaAnd where we go from hereMORE ⁠⁠Subscribe to our weekly newsletter⁠⁠ for Canadian climate tech funding, news, and trends.Enjoying the show? Leave a review on Spotify or Apple Podcasts!Feedback or guest ideas: hello @ climatetechcanada.ca

    49분

  2. 6월 4일

    Accelerating Climate Innovation with Philanthropic Capital ft. Galith Levy, Climate Solutions Prize

    Climate startups face a commercialization gap: They've proven the science, but are too risky for VCs - and too commercial for a government grant. It's a gap that philanthropic capital is well-positioned to close. Galith Levy is the CEO and co-founder of the Climate Solutions Prize, a dedicated philanthropic platform for climate innovation, deploying capital at the moment it matters most. Since 2020, they’ve deployed more than $12M in awards and unlocked over $120M in follow-on investment for winners. What we cover: Why a prize vs grants, funds, or donor-advised vehiclesThe unique gap that philanthropic capital can addressHow CSP structures the prizes to unlock follow-on investmentWhy climate makes up just 2% of climate philanthropy - and how that can changeFamily offices and the next-generation of climate capitalCommunication impact returns - not just financial onesWhat blended finance actually looks like in practiceBuilding the "Davos for climate"MORE ⁠Subscribe to our weekly newsletter⁠ for Canadian climate tech funding, news, and trends.Enjoying the show? Leave a review on Spotify or Apple Podcasts!Feedback or guest ideas: hello @ climatetechcanada.ca

    46분
  3. Closing the Heat Pump Adoption Gap with Stephen Lake, Jetson

    5월 14일

    Closing the Heat Pump Adoption Gap with Stephen Lake, Jetson

    We know heat pumps work - they’ve been around for decades - but actually getting them into homes is a challenge. The gap is structural: high upfront costs, a buying process stuck in the 90s, and a supply chain stacking layers of margin between the manufacturer and your home. We talk with Stephen Lake, founder and CEO of Jetson, a home electrification company focused on making the transition to electric systems more affordable and sustainable. Jetson was started by the same team that built and sold North (formerly Thalmic Labs) to Google. They raised a $50M Series A earlier this year and are operating in Vancouver, Colorado and Massachusetts. Jetson is giving heat pumps the DTC treatment and vertically integrating the entire experience - from hardware to install -building a system that functions more like mass production than a typical HVAC company. What we cover: Why home heating is a bigger emissions lever than switching to an EVThe structural barriers keeping heat pump adoption low - and Jetson’s thesis for closing the gapJetson’s strategy for turning one-off installations into a repeatable processHow Jetson thinks about entering new markets- The cold-climate and cost myths that are still slowing adoptionWhat a fleet of connected homes means for the customer experienceThe grid integration play: demand response, time-of-use optimization, and what comes nextMORE Subscribe to our weekly newsletter for Canadian climate tech funding, news, and trends.Enjoying the show? Leave a review on Spotify or Apple Podcasts!Feedback or guest ideas: hello @ climatetechcanada.ca

    54분
  4. Turning Toronto Into Canada's Climate Hub

    4월 30일

    Turning Toronto Into Canada's Climate Hub

    Can Toronto become a global climate hub - and put Canada on the map? Becky Park-Romanovsky is a global leader in sustainability and climate action, with a track record of launching and scaling climate-focused initiatives across multiple continents. She founded Toronto Climate Week, co-founded Climate North, is a lecturer on Social Entrepreneurship at IE University in Madrid, and previously developed carbon offset projects across the Americas, Africa, Middle East, and Eastern Europe. TOCW is a decentralized platform - part convener, part infrastructure layer for Canada's climate ecosystem. Their October kickoff was planned as a single day with 20 events. Instead, it drew 100 events, 5,000 attendees, and representation from 30 countries - with zero international outreach. The full week runs June 1–7 with 200+ events across 16 tracks. We get into: Toronto's potential as a climate hub - where it's strong and who still needs to come to the tableWhy corporate climate action isn't slowing down even as public commitments disappearThe strategy behind radical inclusion - arts, sports, cultureBuilding the infrastructure to turn a week of conversations into measurable outcomesWhat Canada's climate ecosystem looks like if Toronto gets this rightWe're happy to be supporting TOCW in their inaugural year as a media partner. MORE Subscribe to our weekly briefing for the latest climate deals, events, policy shifts and more. Enjoying the show? Leave a review and help us grow! Questions or feedback: hello@climatetechcanada.ca

    35분
  5. Turning Retired EV Batteries Into Domestic Energy Storage with Moment Energy

    4월 16일

    Turning Retired EV Batteries Into Domestic Energy Storage with Moment Energy

    The battery storage market is growing - and the supply chain feeding it runs largely through overseas cell manufacturers. At the same time, the first wave of EV batteries is aging out of vehicles, with nowhere obvious to go. Moment Energy is building the infrastructure to address both problems at once, repurposing retired EV battery packs for commercial energy storage. Their platform takes battery cells that still hold around 80% of their original capacity and redeploys them as stationary battery energy storage. Unlike competitors sourcing cells from overseas, Moment's feedstock is already here: in EVs across Canada and the US. Sumreen Rattan is co-founder and COO of Moment Energy. The company closed a US$15M Series A from Amazon's Climate Pledge Fund and Voyager Ventures, secured a $20.3M DOE grant for a Texas gigafactory, and holds supply agreements with Nissan North America and Mercedes-Benz. What we cover: Moment’s second-life thesis - why a battery with 80% capacity remaining is too valuable to recycle Putting together supply partnerships with Nissan and Mercedes-Benz Data centres as a new customer category The domestic supply chain advantage as FEOC rules reshape North American procurement What's slowing energy storage deployment in Canada Building at gigafactory scale and solving the talent gap → Subscribe to our weekly newsletter for Canadian climate tech funding, news, and trends → Full show notes and resources → Enjoying the show? Leave a review on Spotify or Apple Podcasts → Feedback or guest ideas: hello@climatetechcanada.ca

    41분
  6. The Economic Case for Carbon Removal with Na'im Merchant

    4월 2일

    The Economic Case for Carbon Removal with Na'im Merchant

    Canada's carbon removal sector punches well above its weight. We're home to leaders in direct air capture, mineral and ocean pathways and international companies are moving projects to Canada. The question is whether Canada will move ambitiously enough to capitalize before the window closes. Na'im Merchant is the Executive Director of Carbon Removal Canada, the country's leading CDR advocacy non-profit. In March 2026, his organization helped anchor the Advance Carbon Removal Coalition - a $100M commitment from the federal government, RBC, BMO, and Shopify to back Canadian projects by 2030. Carbon Removal Canada is the connective tissue the sector needed: a technology-agnostic, independent organization that coordinates policy, organizes the ecosystem, and builds the demand signals that help projects get financed. Their economic modelling shows CDR starts saving Canada money by 2035, cutting the marginal cost of reaching net zero by over 50% by 2050. What we cover: Why Na'im left global health for carbon removal What $100M actually unlocks - and why a government buyer mattersThe economic argument: how CDR saves Canada money on the path to net zeroIndustrial integration: mining, steel, and forestry as CDR opportunitiesTrough of disillusionment or normal maturation?The US pullback: genuine competitive opening for Canada, or missed opportunity?What policy and capital levers need to be pulled to realize this gigatonne-scale potentialLinks: → Subscribe to our weekly newsletter for Canadian climate tech funding, news, and trends → Full show notes and resources → Enjoying the show? Leave a review on Spotify or Apple Podcasts → Feedback or guest ideas: hello@climatetechcanada.ca

    41분
  7. Low-Carbon Fuels Without the Green Premium ft. Secant Fuel

    3월 12일

    Low-Carbon Fuels Without the Green Premium ft. Secant Fuel

    The green fuels transition has a cost problem. Mandates are arriving, corporate targets are being set, but sustainable aviation fuel and renewable diesel keep stalling on the same issue: price. Jochem Kamstra is the founder of Secant Fuel, a Canadian startup turning CO2 into syngas, the building block for low-carbon fuels like methanol and sustainable aviation fuel. Secant Fuel uses heat - not electricity - to create its fuels, allowing them to better compete with fossil fuels on price, and a distributed production model that integrates with industry. That's the threshold that has eluded this space for decades. Hit it, and the addressable market is measured in trillions. In this episode: Why Secant can hit fossil fuel price points when green hydrogen couldn'tThe surprising challenge of finding CO2 feedstocks, and it’s scarcer than you’d expectHow carbon utilization changes the project economics of carbon captureThe case for distributed, smaller-scale production and selling directWhy picking the right markets is key to success - and where Secant Fuel is finding tractionWhat Europe's SAF mandate and Canada's Clean Fuel Regulations mean for the marketWhy investors now demand cheaper-than-fossil, not just greener-than-fossilWhat the Hard Climate venture builder model gave Secant that a traditional incubator couldn'tLinks: → Subscribe to our weekly newsletter for Canadian climate tech funding, news, and trends → Full show notes and resources → Enjoying the show? Leave a review on Spotify or Apple Podcasts → Feedback or guest ideas: hello@climatetechcanada.ca

    49분
  8. Winning The Water Pollution Arms Race with Xatoms

    2월 26일

    Winning The Water Pollution Arms Race with Xatoms

    Since 2015, over 200 new contaminants have entered our water systems. Traditional purification technology wasn't built to keep up. Diana Virgovicova is the founder and CEO of Xatoms, a Canadian company using AI and quantum chemistry to custom-design water purification materials. Instead of running months of physical lab experiments, Xatoms models molecular behaviour computationally - predicting how atoms interact to design photocatalysts tailored to specific contaminants. The result is a growing library of materials that slot into existing water infrastructure without rebuilding it, with early traction in mining, agriculture, and textiles. Diana started this research at 14, won an award from the Swedish Royal Family at 17 for discovering her first material, and recently presented alongside Fortune 500 CEOs at Davos. What we cover: Why investors overlook water - and why that's starting to changeHow AI and quantum chemistry accelerate materials discoveryThe case for industrial water purification over non-profit and community modelsWhat Diana learned speaking to Fortune 500 CEOs at DavosHow Xatoms is commercializing across mining, agriculture, and textilesBuilding credibility as a first-time founder through media and social visibilityMore: → Subscribe to our weekly newsletter for Canadian climate tech funding, news, and trends → Enjoying the show? Leave a review on Spotify or Apple Podcasts → Feedback or guest ideas: hello@climatetechcanada.ca

    37분
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예고편

소개

The companies remaking energy, food, and industry are being built right now. The Climate Cycle goes deep inside Canadian climate tech, talking to the founders, investors, and thinkers building the industries of tomorrow. Hosted by Justin Reist, founder of Climate Tech Canada.

정보

  • 제작진
    Climate Tech Canada
  • 방송 연도
    2024년 - 2026년
  • 에피소드
    44
  • 등급
    전체 연령 사용가
  • 저작권
    © Climate Tech Canada
  • 웹사이트 보기
    The Climate Cycle

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