Date: May 21, 2026 | Time: 5:30PM | Location: 涩里番 Faculty Club | Followed by a Cocktail Reception | Free Event
This presentation examines how disruptive innovation is reshaping the global energy system and what that means for Canada at a moment of profound economic and geopolitical transition. Drawing on Energi Media鈥檚 reporting and its energy transition theory of change, the presentation argues that the energy transition is not a linear substitution of fuels, but a structural reordering of the global energy system driven by rapid cost declines in clean technologies, electrification, and the digitization of energy systems.
The core dynamic is disruption: solar, wind, batteries, electric vehicles, heat pumps, and industrial processes are scaling faster than legacy institutions can adapt, shifting investment patterns, altering demand trajectories, and challenging long-standing assumptions about energy security and competitiveness. These changes are already evident in global markets, where capital is moving toward lower-cost, modular, and increasingly software-enabled systems.
For Canada, this disruption creates both opportunity and risk. The country remains deeply anchored in hydrocarbon production, yet its economic future is increasingly tied to participation in emerging clean technology value chains, electrified industrial processes, and evolving global demand patterns. The tension between these trajectories defines Canada鈥檚 strategic dilemma.
The presentation situates Canada within a broader 鈥減ost-American鈥� economic context, where shifting alliances, industrial policy, and competition with China are reshaping the rules of global trade and energy development. It concludes that Canada鈥檚 challenge is not simply to manage a transition, but to recognize and respond to disruption as a systemic force.
Moderated by Dr. Bruce Lourie
President, Ivey Foundation & TISED Professor of Practice
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Markham Hislop
Markham Hislop is a Canadian energy journalist and founder of Energi Media, now in its 18th year. He is best known for his long-form interviews of international energy experts and his data and evidence-driven analysis of energy systems and the global transition to low-carbon technologies. But Markham has also contributed interesting work on energy transition theory, albeit with a journalism focus. His work focuses on technology disruption, electrification, geopolitics, and the structural forces reshaping oil, gas, and power markets. With a background in public policy and decades of experience in journalism, Markham brings clarity and skepticism to complex energy debates. He is widely recognized for identifying emerging trends early and framing them in ways that influence public discourse, helping audiences understand how technology, economics, and policy intersect in the evolving global energy system.