The Irving Institute, the University of Toronto's Lawson Climate Institute, and Quinbrook co-hosted an inspiring conversation at Climate Week NYC 2025. Through panels featuring former U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, former Canadian Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Jonathan Wilkinson, and financial experts Brian Lawson (Vice Chair and Director of Brookfield Corporation) and Rama Variankaval (Global Head of Corporate Advisory from J.P. Morgan), participants explored the evolving energy landscape and the critical role of cross-border collaboration.
Moderators Hilkka Komulainen from Quinbrook and Vijay Vaitheeswaran from The Economist guided the discussions on energy as a strategic asset, the rise of renewables, infrastructure needs, the impact of AI, and the importance of continued innovation and collaboration.
Energy as a Strategic Asset: Energy is vital to national security and economic growth. As Canada remains the leading foreign energy supplier to the U.S., maintaining secure and reliable interconnections, along with robust cross-border supply chains, is essential for North American energy abundance. To capitalize on this, the U.S. and Canada must streamline project timelines, promote policy stability, and develop a North American innovation ecosystem that leverages critical mineral supplies. Such an approach can transform the two nations into an energy superpower by expanding energy, mining, and infrastructure projects through enhanced cross-border collaboration. Without this joint effort, the U.S. risks ceding leadership in the clean energy economy to other global competitors, undermining long-term competitiveness and sustainability.
Renewables for the Long Run: Renewable energy sources, particularly solar, wind, and storage, are increasingly cost-competitive and often the cheapest forms of power. Speakers highlighted the counterintuitive rise in recent renewable investments consequent of the One Big Beautiful Bill (OBBB, or OB3). The sunsetting of tax credits spurred near-term investments, and the new U.S. policy environment is expected to drive consolidation in the renewable energy sector and improve supply chain strategies. Given the crucial role of cost in shaping the future of energy, the renewables outlook remains promising.
Transmission, Electrification, and Grid Modernization: Investing in electrification, transmission development, and grid modernization is crucial because each plays a vital role in building a cleaner and more resilient energy system. Electrification helps reduce emissions by replacing fossil fuels with electricity from renewable sources. Transmission development is essential for connecting renewable resources to demand centers, allowing for greater use of clean energy and reducing congestion. Grid modernization improves the grid's flexibility, reliability, and ability to handle higher levels of variable renewable energy. Together, these critical investments support smoother integration of renewables, strengthen grid resilience against outages, lower costs through improved efficiency, and accelerate efforts to achieve a low-carbon future.
AI's Impact on Energy: AI presents both significant opportunities and challenges for energy systems. Many expressed concerns about the substantial load growth from data centers supporting AI applications and whether supply can be scaled quickly enough to meet the rapidly increasing demand. Others question the accuracy of demand forecasts, citing past overestimations (i.e., dot-com boom). Despite these debates, there is broad agreement on the potential benefits of AI, including optimizing energy use, supporting better policies, and streamlining permitting processes.
Currently, some of the largest data centers rely on gas initially before connecting to the grid, despite existing company commitments to decarbonization. Fortunately, many smart solutions are available to address these issues, such as rapid deployment of renewables and energy storage, flexible load management to unlock supply during peak times, localized generation, and grid upgrades that improve capacity and efficiency.
Collaboration for Innovation: In addition to promoting cross-border collaboration, the discussion also emphasized the importance of academic-public-private partnerships to accelerate critical innovations. Breakthroughs that could be transformative—such as cost reductions in small modular reactors and hydrogen electrolyzers—are less likely to materialize without risk-tolerant public capital that can help derisk these investments for the private sector. Such strategic collaborations are essential to drive the innovations needed to achieve needed energy breakthroughs for an energy hungry world.
The Importance of the Messenger: Several speakers highlighted the importance of reshaping the energy narrative to focus on cost and security, while also considering who delivers these messages. It's crucial to elevate the voices of financiers who can emphasize returns on investment, and hyperscalers to call for the most cost-effective energy solutions, such as renewables with storage and enhanced transmission efficiencies. Ultimately, affordability remains the key factor, which inherently benefits renewables, irrespective of climate politics.
Challenges and Opportunities: Several challenges, such as the politicization of energy issues, regulatory hurdles, consumer impact concerns, and potential trade disputes, were discussed. Despite these challenges, optimism about U.S.-Canada energy collaboration prevailed. Working together, these nations can leverage their strengths to build a secure, sustainable, and prosperous energy future for North America and the world.
The event closed with a reflection on a quote from President Harry S. Truman, "We seek a peaceful world, a prosperous world, a free world, a world of good neighbors, living on terms of equality and mutual respect, as Canada and the United States have lived for generations."
This collaborative path forward requires clear-minded policy and a commitment to ensuring that the most affordable forms of energy are foundational to economic growth and position North America to lead the energy economy of the future.