The latest round of geopolitical chaos unleashed by the U.S. President is succeeding where climate advocacy often falls short: making the political case for renewables, like rooftop solar, urgent and hard to ignore, writes Paul Kershaw.Michael Conroy/The Associated Press
Donald Trump is unwittingly fuelling the clean energy transition.
Sure, his dismissal of human-driven climate change as a “scam” is well-documented. But more than six weeks into his military confrontation with Iran, there are growing reports that many countries are scrambling to accelerate their shift to renewables. Not because of melting glaciers. Because of a chokepoint.
With the Strait of Hormuz being used as a tool of war, nations are confronting an uncomfortable truth: fossil fuels aren’t just bad for the planet’s health. They are geopolitically fragile.
By contrast, the sun doesn’t flow through contested waterways. The wind can’t be sanctioned. Renewables aren’t just clean – they’re sovereign. So the latest round of geopolitical chaos unleashed by Mr. Trump is succeeding where climate advocacy often falls short: making the political case for renewables, like rooftop solar, urgent and hard to ignore.
I speak from personal experience. In 2018, I added 12 kilowatts of solar power to my home in Metro Vancouver – enough to cover all my electricity needs, including charging my Chevy Bolt.
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No solar subsidies were available at the time. But like many Metro Vancouver homeowners, I benefitted greatly from rising home values, so I borrowed against that equity, added the solar, and turned my roof into a 40-year asset generating effectively free electricity. The reduction in ongoing energy costs was immediate. The health benefits – cleaner air, water, and soil for my family and community – are harder to put a number on, but they are also real.
By 2024, the economics behind renewables improved further. Heat pump technology and EV trucks had matured. Chevrolet’s new Silverado EV offers 732 kilometres per charge and can tow 10,000 pounds – more than enough to haul my horse trailer. So we borrowed against our home’s appreciated value again, bought the truck, installed a heat pump, added six more kilowatts of solar, and traded natural gas for clean electricity. This time, provincial and federal retrofit subsidies helped, as did the precipitous drop in solar panel costs.
My home is now officially net-energy positive. Solar covers our heating, cooling, electricity and transportation. We have no range or pump anxiety, and nearly no gas bill. When the power goes out, the Silverado’s massive battery kicks in as backup and keeps our fridge, lights, and internet running. We are, in the most practical sense, energy sovereign.
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And I live in rainy, cloudy Metro Vancouver. In Saskatchewan – the sunniest province in Canada – the economics only get better: fewer panels, lower costs, more power.
Not everyone can draw on rising home equity to finance this kind of transition. That’s precisely where the new majority government of Prime Minister Mark Carney has a historic opening to use its Major Projects Office to deliver the next generation of nation-building investments in energy infrastructure.
The Trans Mountain expansion signals the scale of investment for a single project: $34 billion in public funds. In the case of TMX, the benefits were concentrated among oil producers and the governments tied to that sector, while Mr. Trump’s geopolitical decisions leave no doubt that Canadian consumers remain exposed to global oil prices.
That same level of investment could be deployed very differently: spreading gains more broadly and directly to millions of households, and protecting them from that volatility.
Columnist Max Fawcett has made the political case for rooftop solar. Subsidies for solar, electric vehicles and heat pumps, he notes, may not be the most theoretically efficient way to reduce emissions compared with carbon pricing (which I also support). But the consumer carbon tax asked Canadians to trust that a rebate cheque was tied to their behaviour at the pump or thermostat – an abstract link many found politically unconvincing.
Rooftop solar is different. You can monitor its output on your phone every morning and see its impact on your energy bill every month. My wife laughs at how often I check mine. It’s hard not to become an advocate when silent panels on your roof are visibly converting sunlight into power – without any moving parts or maintenance.
I roughly estimate (with the assistance of AI) that $34-billion spent on a single fossil fuel project could fully finance rooftop solar systems for about one in nine Canadian households – turning millions of roofs into energy assets that cut electricity bills by 50 to 100 per cent, depending on regional sunshine.
It would also fundamentally change our exposure to global risk. The lesson from Hormuz is clear: energy that depends on distant travel is energy that can be taken away. Energy that falls on your roof is not. Canada should act on that insight now.
Dr. Paul Kershaw is a policy professor at UBC and founder of Generation Squeeze, Canada’s leading voice for generational fairness. You can follow Gen Squeeze on X, Facebook, Bluesky, and Instagram, as well as subscribe to Paul’s Hard Truths podcast.