Last year, we asked the crucial question: Is Canada doing enough to push cleantech from the scaling stage into widespread industry adoption? Our 2025 Wish List focused on three essentials: sustained investor funding, broad buyer adoption, and robust government policy to incentivize the transition.
As we close out the year, the answer to avoiding the “naughty list” is a qualified yes. While persistent market-entry barriers remain—high costs, slow procurement, and regulatory complexity—the commitment from both the government and the innovation ecosystem is strong. Driving widespread cleantech adoption will require continued effort in 2026, built on the groundwork and powerful momentum we saw throughout 2025.
Budget and Buyers Converge
The biggest win of 2025 was the clear alignment of federal policy with cleantech commercialization. This is evident in key areas:
Policy
Budget 2025 confirmed and expanded the suite of Clean Economy Investment Tax Credits (ITCs), including those for Clean Electricity, Carbon Capture, and Clean Technology Manufacturing. Crucially, the budget also committed to greater clarity and predictability for these credits, directly addressing the industry’s need for stability to attract large-scale private investment.
Industry Adoption
We saw a significant pivot where the government framed key national challenges—such as housing and critical minerals—as industrial strategies that rely on cleantech to succeed. This marked a shift: cleantech is not just environmental policy anymore. It’s the foundation of Canada’s economic competitiveness and industrial strength.
Innovator Expansion
We saw a significant pivot where the government framed key national challenges—such as housing and critical minerals—as industrial strategies that rely on cleantech to succeed. This marked a shift: cleantech is not just environmental policy anymore. It’s the foundation of Canada’s economic competitiveness and industrial strength.
The Adoption Challenge Persists
Despite these policy advancements, the adoption challenge remains unresolved—many ventures stall when seeking large-scale customers.
While incentives are flowing, industry decision-makers still grapple with the cost and perceived risk of being large-scale adopters of cleantech. Concerns about the complexity of accessing grants and the need for simplified regulatory processes continue to be highlighted in cleantech surveys. Natural Resources Canada's 2025 Cleantech Industry Survey indicated that 47% of respondents find complex application processes as a challenge to accessing capital.
Furthermore, the fact that some Canadian firms are still exploring foreign markets due to perceived stronger demand reinforces the need for domestic procurement and de-risking strategies.
Closing the Adoption Gap
Foresight’s work in closing the adoption gap has never been more vital. Our core mission is twofold: champion Canadian innovations and connect them directly with industry, while helping industry strategically source the technologies that measurably improve their business operations and bottom line.
Our year-end results underscore our commitment to closing the gap between innovation and commercialization:
- Mobilized over $153M+ in capital to fuel the growth of Canadian cleantech companies.
- Supported 273+ companies as they navigated critical scaling and commercialization challenges, contributing to the creation of 819+ full-time jobs across the sector.
- Successfully wrapped up 7 major Innovation Challenges, directly connecting industry leaders to innovative ventures that solved their most pressing operational barriers.
- Launched 22 in-depth research reports providing critical intelligence on cleantech innovation, adoption pathways, and emerging market opportunities.
- Hosted 3 regional cleantech awards events (in BC, Alberta, and Atlantic Canada) to celebrate cleantech leaders across the country and accelerate momentum.
- Recognized an entirely new cohort of first-time Foresight 50 honourees, showcasing the depth of Canada’s maturing cleantech pipeline.
- Published 30 articles and thought pieces highlighting the success stories of our cleantech ventures and key sector trends to share with the cleantech community
Our 2026 Outlook
Change is not only coming to Canada's industries—it's already here, and it's happening fast. We are successfully cultivating world-class innovation. The next chapter hinges on speeding up the adoption process, because a sustainable future demands we move faster than business as usual.
We look forward to translating the massive momentum created in 2025 into tangible, transformative impact across Canada's key industries in 2026 and beyond.
