Over the course of this series, we have explored a central idea that is becoming increasingly important for Canada’s economy: cleantech is no longer simply an environmental sector operating at the margins of the economy. It is increasingly becoming part of the foundation of the modern advanced economy.
In earlier blogs, we explored how many cleantech companies are also advanced technology companies — developing solutions involving artificial intelligence, advanced materials, robotics, sensors, software, automation, industrial optimization systems, advanced energy infrastructure, and next-generation manufacturing technologies.
We also explored how cleantech is increasingly tied to productivity and competitiveness. Technologies that improve industrial efficiency, optimize energy use, modernize infrastructure, strengthen supply chains, and improve operational performance are no longer simply “climate technologies.” They are increasingly economic technologies.
This naturally leads to what may be the final and perhaps most important conclusion of this series:
Cleantech is increasingly becoming advanced manufacturing.
When many people think about advanced manufacturing, they still picture sectors such as aerospace, automotive, semiconductors, or heavy industrial production. Those sectors remain critically important to Canada. But modern cleantech firms increasingly operate in exactly the same industrial and technological space.
Today’s cleantech companies manufacture and integrate:
- batteries and energy storage systems,
- advanced materials,
- AI-enabled industrial systems,
- robotics and automation technologies,
- power electronics,
- thermal and energy management systems,
- water and waste treatment technologies,
- industrial software,
- carbon management systems,
- grid infrastructure,
- and modular energy systems.
These are sophisticated industrial capabilities requiring highly skilled labour, engineering expertise, integrated supply chains, advanced manufacturing facilities, and long-term capital investment.
And increasingly, the data shows this is no longer a small niche sector.
According to updated Canada Cleantech Alliance analysis using data from the Clean Technology Data Strategy, Statistics Canada, NRCan, and ISED, Canada’s cleantech sector now includes approximately 2,470 “pure play” cleantech companies.
Employment in the sector has grown steadily in recent years, reaching more than 224,000 direct jobs in 2024. That means the cleantech sector now directly employs:
- more people than the Canadian oil & gas sector,
- more people than the Canadian automotive sector,
- more people than forestry,
- and dramatically more than steel or aluminium manufacturing individually.
Before anyone comes after the numbers: yes, sector comparisons are imperfect. Definitions, methodologies, and the treatment of indirect jobs vary widely across industries. Some sectors include broad value chains while others are far more narrowly defined. The point is not that these are perfect apples-to-apples comparisons — it is that cleantech has quietly become a major contributor to Canada’s economy and industrial base, despite often still being treated as niche.
The data also highlights the growing economic footprint of the sector. The cleantech sector generated approximately $43.3 billion in GDP in 2024, up from $34.9 billion in 2021. Exports also continue to grow, reaching approximately $10.8 billion in 2024.
Importantly, many cleantech companies are still relatively early in their commercialization journey. As highlighted in the report, the sector’s export profile remains smaller than some traditional sectors partly because many cleantech products are complex infrastructure systems, industrial technologies, or capital-intensive deployments rather than easily shipped commodities or software products.
At the same time, global markets are expanding rapidly.
The International Energy Agency now estimates that global clean energy technology markets reached nearly US$1.2 trillion in 2025 and could approach US$2 trillion by 2035 under current policy settings.
This matters enormously for Canada. Countries are no longer competing solely on innovation. They are competing on their ability to manufacture, deploy, scale, and export strategic technologies. And increasingly, many of those technologies are cleantech technologies. This also highlights one of Canada’s longstanding economic challenges.
Canada has world-class innovators, researchers, engineers, entrepreneurs, and access to many of the natural and energy resources needed for the next industrial economy. What we have often struggled with is not innovation itself, but industrial scale-up:
- scaling manufacturing,
- enabling domestic deployment,
- securing procurement pathways,
- supporting commercialization,
- attracting patient capital,
- and building globally competitive industrial ecosystems.
Too often, Canadian companies develop technologies here but scale manufacturing elsewhere. This represents more than a missed environmental opportunity. It affects productivity growth, supply chain resilience, export diversification, industrial capacity, and long-term competitiveness. Throughout this series, one broader conclusion has become increasingly clear:
Cleantech is no longer simply a climate discussion.
It is increasingly tied to:
- advanced manufacturing,
- industrial strategy,
- productivity,
- infrastructure modernization,
- economic resilience,
- energy systems,
- export competitiveness,
- and economic sovereignty.
The countries that succeed in the coming decades will not simply invent technologies. They will build the ecosystems capable of manufacturing, financing, deploying, and exporting them at scale. Canada has many of the ingredients needed to compete successfully in this new industrial era. But doing so will require us to stop viewing cleantech as a peripheral environmental sector. Because increasingly, cleantech is becoming part of the industrial core of the Canadian economy. And the next industrial economy will not be built separately from cleantech. It will increasingly be built through it.