It’s an unfortunate fact of political life that the four-year election cycle and minorities governments are inherently opposed the support of R&D with long-term potential. Witness the perplexing decline in support for the hydrogen and fuel cell sector.
Ten years ago, Canada’s nascent fuel cell sector sat atop government’s priority ranking of technologies underpinning the nation’s prospects for economic prosperity and environmental sustainability. Today, R&D programs have expired and critical demonstration projects are about to suffer the same fate (see lead article).
Is it because the technology has taken longer than expected to yield widespread (and profitable) applications? Perhaps. Many would argue that hydrogen and fuel cell innovation has been supplanted by sexier technology challenges. The growing green movement has prompted the federal government to come up with solutions to environmental damage wreaked by fossil fuels — which also happen to be Canada’s biggest wealth generators.
Governments preparing to face the electorate are understandably attracted to pursuing technology development to mitigate the worst effects of coal, oil and gas and the now notorious oil sands developments. Hence the current popularity with funding anything to do with carbon capture and storage, biofuels and the like.
Hydrogen and fuel cell technologies possess huge potential for helping to achieve laudable policy goals. But short-term political objectives and a near-empty treasury appear to encourage political expediency rather than sound policy decision-making.
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