Mark Jaccard is a professor in the School of Resource and Environmental Management at Simon Fraser University (SFU), and a prominent Canadian leader in the field of sustainable energy policy. He has spent the past 25 years working to prevent climate change, conveying the urgent need for regulations and energy policies that will prevent greenhouse gas emissions.
Many of Mr. Jaccard's academic contributions stem from the energy policy challenges encountered during his career - as former chair and CEO of the British Columbia Utilities Commission - and a consultant for governments, as head of special task forces and commissions, and as a member of key international panels on sustainable energy.
Mr. Jaccard serves on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, recipient of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize, and is currently a lead author for the special report on renewable energy.
Mr. Jaccard is the 2010 recipient of SFU's Sterling Prize in Support of Controversy, awarded for taking a stance that provokes controversy and still proves influential - Mr. Jaccard was an early advocate for carbon taxes and electricity regulations.
He has authored and co-authored several books, including Sustainable Fossil Fuels: The Unusual Suspect in the Quest for Clean and Enduring Energy, which was awarded the 2006 Donner Prize for top policy book in Canada. The book is a direct challenge to the assumption that humanity must stop using fossil fuels in order to save the planet.
Mr. Jaccard argues that Canada's fossil fuels will be the cheapest source of clean energy for the next century, that our ability to use fossil fuels without emitting harmful greenhouse gases, through carbon capture and storage technologies, will buy us time to develop renewable energy technologies and arrive at a sustainable global energy system in the future.
Nominator: Mario Pinto, Burnaby, B.C.