NRCan and the University of Waterloo wish to establish a periodic workshop for heavy industry in Southern Ontario including the steel, cement, gas-fired power, oil refining and petrochemical sectors. These are known as the hard-to-abate industries with respect to abatement of CO₂ emissions. The ‘Hard-to-Abate Club’ will provide (i) expert presentations on topics involving carbon capture, utilization and storage, electricity grids, transmission pipelines and other topics that these industries find important and (ii) networking to develop industrial synergies to allow them to meet the 2030 GHG goals of the Federal Government and the 2050 Net Zero goal.

No such forum currently exists in the industrial heartland of Ontario. It is intended that after this first workshop, the participants would themselves arrange for funding further quarterly workshops. Such a forum should ultimately lead to improved environmental and economic performance by these hard-to-abate industries that are threatened with paying high carbon taxes and being penalized by border adjustment tariffs.

The objectives of the workshop are to listen to experts on the technologies of CCUS and to encourage networking among Hard-to-Abate industries in Southwestern Ontario.