Man in a hard hat consults tablet while standing in front of a transmission line. By Marla Orenstein and Ashley Meller Originally published in Canada's National Observer , Jan. 27, 2026

Alberta’s hydrocarbon sector faced an uncertain future in a world moving towards lower-carbon energy before the pandemic, with existing trends  accelerating  since March 2020. This uncertainty towards the future of the sector offers both risks and opportunities. The province’s rich natural resource wealth and highly skilled workforce have potential to capture a growing share of the clean technology market, and play a pivotal role in reaching climate targets. In order for Albe

Planning for the future is complicated. We don’t know for sure what the future will look like. That means — and forgive me for being a little nerdy here — defining “future fitness” is a  probabilistic  question: we have to assess “fitness” across a range of possible futures. At the same time, the future also isn’t entirely out of our control. Policy choices we make now can influence which futures are more (or less) likely to come to pass. Sound complicated? A new report from

The outbreak of COVID-19 has triggered a global economic crisis that was unimaginable even two weeks ago, and perhaps nowhere is that being felt more acutely than in Alberta. In addition to the obvious consequences of social distancing on businesses and industry, we’re also dealing with a gut-wrenching collapse in oil prices that’s being driven in part by a deepening conflict between Saudi Arabia and Russia. Taken together, the combination of falling oil prices and a temporar

Chad Park’s remarks from the EFL 2.0 launch reception on February 12, 2019 Over the last month something notable happened here in Alberta that not everyone may have heard about. On December 11th, the Canyon Creek Hydro Development Act received Royal Assent, enabling the Alberta Utilities Commission to issue its final approval for the Canyon Creek Pumped Hydro Energy Storage Project near Hinton. Alberta can take the bull by the horns and adapt to these changes, get in front of

Oil and gas versus renewables? That’s a false dichotomy, according to the Energy Futures Lab (EFL), an initiative that acknowledges the importance of Alberta’s significant natural advantage in fossil fuels and how it can be used as a stepping stone to a cleaner energy future. The Energy Futures Lab is designed to allow stakeholders to engage with one another about Canada’s energy future, to find some common ground, and to take action together. – Chad Park “The issues around e

No one ever said the transition to a new energy economy would be easy. From the very beginning, The Natural Step Canada (TNSC) was under a great deal of pressure to describe the impacts and outcomes of the Energy Futures Lab (EFL). We resisted prescribing a solution. Our Fellowship – more diverse than we could have hoped – has created a shared vision and innovation pathways, generated new ideas, and brought existing initiatives into the lab to amplify and scale. Describing an

Reflections from our Energy Futures Lab Fellows “The Albertan Oil Sands, and the province’s economic dependence on them needs to be an important focus for the province as it shifts to a modern energy future that is economically lucrative and sustainable.” – Aproov Sinha What does the future of Alberta’s energy system look like to Apoorv Sinha, founder of Carbon Upcycling Technologies , Research Manager of zEroCor Tubulars Inc , and Energy Futures Lab Fellow? “In the future, i