Canada announces funding for clean energy projects

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced 82 million Canadian dollars in funding for 55 new clean-energy projects, ranging from electric vehicles to wind power.

"The Canadian economy is based in large part on the abundance of our natural resources," said Harper, who explained that Canada needs to develop those resources to both maintain the country's economic strength and to "meet the challenges of what still remains a very fragile global economy".

He added that Canadians have a duty "to ourselves and to future generations to develop those resources in a way that is responsible and respects the environment".

The prime minister made the announcement Friday in Quebec City where he toured a company that received 4.7 million dollars to develop an enzyme-based approach for low-cost carbon dioxide capture from industrial effluent emissions in the oil sands of the resource-rich Canadian province of Alberta.

Of the 55 projects that are part of the Canadian government's ecoENERGY Innovation Initiative and which are spread across seven provinces and two territories, 15 will be pre-commercialization demonstration projects to test the feasibility of various technologies.