Doubling Down: The Definitive Decade for Climate

Speaker 1 [00:00:02] Hi. It’s John here.
Speaker 2 [00:00:03] And it’s Theresa.
Speaker 1 [00:00:05] Theresa. We’ve talked on episodes past about your electric vehicle, and today we’re talking about clean tech. So I’m going to kick off taking you back to your EV. Are you still driving it?
Speaker 2 [00:00:14] I am, it’s served me well. And although we did move into a house now and we park on the street some of the time. So access to charging is not the greatest.
Speaker 1 [00:00:24] How are you figuring that out? Charging when you park on the street?
Speaker 2 [00:00:28] We basically don’t. We have to drive to a supercharger. Luckily, a lot of the places where we run errands have installed chargers, so that has been a huge boon and honestly, a relief because we can just dip into the grocery store for 20 minutes. Our cars charge maybe another 6%. That gets us to where we need to go and then we’re good.
Speaker 1 [00:00:46] I love it, innovation on the fly. And now, as a homeowner, how are you thinking about heat pumps?
Speaker 2 [00:00:51] We are looking into seeing how we can get a heat pump. Specifically, what are the right heat pumps for our space? When is the right time to get a heat pump? We want to make sure that we wear out our current heating units life cycle. And so a lot of considerations that, you know, not only I have, but so many of my neighbors are sharing in the community around us. It’s sparked a really fun dialog across all these people from different walks of life.
Speaker 1 [00:01:16] It just goes to show how complex the climate transition is, not just for whole countries and whole economies, but for households and individuals. Every decision can be a little bit different. That makes it interesting, makes it challenging. And those challenges are what we explore in a new report from the RBC Climate Action Institute. It’s called Double or Trouble. It’s our first report that takes a look at Canadian climate action and measures how the country is doing across the economy, but also as individuals and as households. And the core message is there in the title Double or Trouble. We need to double a lot of things, including the amount of capital that needs to go into climate action over the rest of the decade, and that capital is needed to deploy and scale technologies, whether it’s heat pumps or EVs, but also industrial technologies, from carbon capture to methane measurement from outer space.
Speaker 2 [00:02:09] And that climate capital will also be needed to help change the narrative, John. Our research shows that most Canadians are not willing to change their lifestyles for high impact climate action, no matter how crucial, urgent, important it is. So what good is that technology if no one is willing to adopt it?
Speaker 1 [00:02:26] This is shaping up as a decade of innovation. And as we approach the midpoint, how can we ensure that Canada is a global leader in the clean tech race? This is Disruptors, an RBC podcast. I’m John Stackhouse.
Speaker 2 [00:02:45] And I’m Trinh Theresa Do.
Speaker 1 [00:02:51] Climate action involves everyone. But as our report shows, the federal government has carried most of the financial weight over the last decade. New public investment is going to be needed from all sorts of sources, but the real opportunity is private capital and markets to mobilize billions, maybe trillions of dollars that will be needed to scale these technologies and get us on a path to net zero. And most importantly, it’s going to require all of us as individuals, as citizens, neighbors and consumers making those critical choices every day.
Speaker 2 [00:03:20] Agreed. We need to mobilize to create this demand, because that demand is going to be what encourages scale and adoption of these new technologies. And that’s more than ever before, so important.
Speaker 1 [00:03:33] Today, we’re taking a deeper dive with leaders from three Canadian clean tech companies discussing the opportunities and challenges that they see across the country and even in outer space. Our first guest is Stephane Germain. He’s the president of GHGSat. In 2016, the company launched the world’s first satellite system to monitor greenhouse gases. It was the size of a toaster oven and nicknamed Claire. In 2023, the satellites helped authorities spot and stop a massive methane leak in England. Stephane, welcome to Disruptors.
Speaker 3 [00:04:08] Thanks, John. Pleasure to be here.
Speaker 1 [00:04:09] Let’s start quickly with Claire. Why the name?
Speaker 3 [00:04:12] We name our satellites after the kids of our team members. So Claire is the daughter of our chief scientist.
Speaker 1 [00:04:20] That’s a great beginning. Now, we’re all familiar pretty much with satellite images, even if they come from Google. Give us a quick sense of how GHGSat differs.
Speaker 3 [00:04:28] Well, we designed our satellites very specifically to monitor emissions from individual facilities around the world. So there’s satellites that can see the whole atmosphere every day to inform climate change models. But what we were trying to do was really help individual operators see what’s going on in their own facilities.
Speaker 1 [00:04:48] And it’s one thing to have an image. It’s quite another to actually do something with it. How do you connect the satellite with the actual decision makers on the ground? Who can do something with that data?
Speaker 3 [00:04:59] Well, that’s always a challenge because we live in a world where we’re all swamped with data on a regular basis, and it’s to turn that data into something useful, something that’s actionable. So sometimes it’s as simple as just a picture tells a thousand words. Rather than getting a data point that says, hey, you got a leak of this magnitude at this GPS location, that’s just data. You just show a picture and say, look, this facility has this massive emission. And that then helps spur action, catalyze action.
Speaker 2 [00:05:32] So GHGSat began with monitoring methane emissions, and recently it launched the world’s first commercial CO2 sensor in orbit. Can you share with us the difference between monitoring methane versus CO2?
Speaker 3 [00:05:46] We had to choose about five years ago which one we’d start with, because one of the first things we learned with Claire was that if you try to do both things at the same time, you’re going to do them both slightly less well than you’d like. So we chose methane first because it was the one that had the most immediate commercial market. CO2 is a much longer term play, and you need to do both. It turns out for us it’s actually the same sensor, but we just need to tune it to different gases. And so it’s a relatively minor — my science team would kill me for saying this — relatively minor change between the two satellites, but it’s basically the same thing. And so we’re really excited to see our first results soon from carbon dioxide.
Speaker 1 [00:06:33] There are a lot of other countries and companies that are good at satellite imagery. How did you get there first?
Speaker 3 [00:06:39] We just saw that we had technology that could be brought to bear to help customers understand their own emissions more cost effectively than what they currently were using as other technologies. The idea of miniaturizing a sensor into something that you could launch as an entrepreneur, as a new business, was kind of wild. Ten, 15 years ago. So we spotted the opportunity, we saw the market need, and we jumped on it. And we just happened to get there first. And now we’re working really hard to maintain that lead and stay number one on what we do.
Speaker 1 [00:07:13] As the old saying goes, what gets measured gets managed. And this is all about, measuring, emissions. What are the types of companies and industries that you think will benefit, most especially from methane mapping?
Speaker 3 [00:07:25] Oil and gas is the largest industrial emitter of methane in the world. So we work closely with many, many large oil and gas companies in North America, but also internationally. But in addition to oil and gas, the waste sector, the coal mining industry, agriculture is actually really, really big for emissions. If you look at it globally, if you add up every single cow in the world and multiply a cow burp by a number of cows, you’re going to get a lot of methane. And then there’s a bunch of others, but those are probably the biggest ones.
Speaker 2 [00:07:59] Just given the diversity of emitters and geographical landscapes, what are the challenges that your company faces in being able to collect and analyze that data?
Speaker 3 [00:08:09] Well, collecting and analyzing the data is actually the easy part. The challenge is how you translate that data into action. You’re dealing with different company cultures, different national cultures, different national laws. And so to be able to motivate and bring to action all these different groups and all these different jurisdictions, that is the challenge.
Speaker 1 [00:08:30] I’m guessing some of the users don’t want to see the results. How do you bridge that mental gap?
Speaker 3 [00:08:35] The good news is that actually, within almost every single company we worked with, there’s always a group that does want to understand their emissions better. They are sometimes fighting against a culture of 99% of the rest of the company, that’s really focused on production and profits. So it’s a real challenge to get each company to get the data, internalize it, action it, and do so in a way that people see it as a positive.
Speaker 2 [00:09:04] As you’ve been engaging with companies and, you know, engendering that trust and verification, have you encountered anything that surprised you?
Speaker 3 [00:09:13] Well, maybe I can tell a bit of a funny story. When we launched our first satellite, Claire, in 2016, we went hunting for different large emission sources, and some academics asked us to go look at what’s called a mud volcano. So a natural source of emissions of methane in Central Asia. And sure enough, we went and took a look and saw nothing. Very boring. But right next to it we saw this massive emission that we hadn’t expected. And that became the first cornerstone example of the international community coming together to identify using satellites, a source that wasn’t previously known, and then work with the local government to mitigate that. That one discovery was equivalent to taking a million cars off the road for a year.
Speaker 2 [00:10:05] That’s amazing.
Speaker 3 [00:10:06] That’s the magnitude of opportunity we have in front of us.
Speaker 1 [00:10:19] Stephane, what does Canada need to do to build a true national advantage in this space?
Speaker 3 [00:10:24] I really believe that Canada can have a sustainable competitive advantage by having aggressive policies and regulations, but also aggressive initiatives and efforts within the operators themselves to reduce emissions. It has to be all of the levers being pulled at once. It’s not just about regulations. It’s not just about taxes or carbon pricing. It’s about that culture change. It’s about companies themselves realizing that they will have a longer run, more profitable run if they themselves position themselves as being the most competitive, the most differentiated in the world.
Speaker 1 [00:11:10] If you pause for a moment and look out, I don’t know, five, ten years, where do you see this taking us?
Speaker 3 [00:11:17] So I believe that in the next 5 to 10 years, every single facility in the world is going to be monitored on a daily basis using satellites. And with that kind of insight and data, that total transparency in global emissions, not just in methane, but carbon dioxide. Not only are we going to have a better idea of where the challenges are and where the opportunities are, we’re also going to have the basis for a much more fluid market. So I really live with hope and actually, I think with well-founded optimism that there’s going to be some significant changes in the way we all individually work and how businesses operate every day based on that kind of level of transparency being available worldwide.
Speaker 1 [00:11:57] That’s a great call to action and also inspiring in terms of the opportunity that’s out there for all sorts of sectors, all sorts of innovators. Stephane, thanks for being on Disruptors.
Speaker 3 [00:12:07] Thanks, John. Appreciate the opportunity.
Speaker 2 [00:12:14] Our next guest is Apoorv Sinha, founder and CEO of Carbon Upcycling Technologies, a Calgary based clean energy company focused on low carbon building materials. Apoorv has helmed Carbon Upcycling for a decade, focusing the company on the “U” of CCUS (carbon capture, utilization and storage). Apoorv, welcome to Disruptors.
Speaker 4 [00:12:36] Thank you for having me, Theresa and John.
Speaker 2 [00:12:38] You were born in India, grew up in Kuwait, studied chemical and biomolecular engineering at Atlanta, Georgia. What led you to Canada and the world to clean tech?
Speaker 4 [00:12:47] I’ll tell you, it wasn’t my skiing skills. I’m still kind of a pretty average skier. It was really an interesting turn of events. As you mentioned, I have had the privilege of kind of having seen different parts of the world. But really, when I finished my undergraduate degree in 2010, it was really the job market that led me to Calgary. I had studied chemical engineering and really wanted to be part of something to do with energy, and, Calgary was the place to be at the time. It was difficult as an immigrant in the States to get a long term visa. So Canada made a lot of sense to set up shop, I suppose. And over 12 years later, I’m still here and working on something that I find extremely gratifying personally, the carbon cycle and closing it up.
Speaker 1 [00:13:30] That’s such a great Canadian story, and I hope we get to ski together someday, because my life’s ambition is to be pretty average. So you’ll have to help me get there. But we’re talking about buildings, and a lot of us don’t fully appreciate how carbon intensive the buildings are that we’re sitting in, that we live in, and that the more we build, often the more carbon gets released into the atmosphere. I wonder if you can give us some insight into where Carbon Upcycling fits into that grand challenge.
Speaker 4 [00:13:58] Our view of Carbon Upcycling is that cement and clinker. And I’ll mention in a second what the difference between them is. But these are two terms that are being conflated consistently. And there’s no reason why we cannot make a low carbon cement that is both cost effective and scalable and locally sourced. The core problem around cement decarbonization is that the chemistry of making cement, which is to take limestone and essentially baking it, such that it releases CO2 and it leaves behind a chemical called calcium oxide, which essentially is the binder that holds together our roads, our buildings, our bridge decks. And what we have been working on is essentially reducing that limestone component us what we call cement. If we can take waste materials from mining, waste materials from construction waste, waste materials from the steel industry, we can essentially come up with a low carbon cement product, which is not only able to get us considerably closer to our net zero ambitions, but also do it in a way that’s actually circular, not just for the cement industry, but also for other industries like mining, steel, and even energy generation.
Speaker 1 [00:15:05] So you’re essentially recycling materials into cement. Is that what upcycling is all about?
Speaker 4 [00:15:12] The real difference between recycling, upcycling, John, is that we’re actually taking a material of almost no value. This is material that gets used in road cell foundations. It gets thrown away in tailings or landfills. And so when we’re able to take that material and make it into a reactive alternative to clinker in cement, that becomes a really good, scalable example of upcycling, where you’re taking a material that has essentially no value in our current kind of market, but can now be used to reduce the emissions of one of our most carbon intensive industries.
Speaker 2 [00:15:48] That’s fascinating, and thank you for such a clear explanation of the whole process. We’ve had a lot of conversations with builders and developers across Canada, and when we mention cement and concrete, many have told us, you know, they don’t really quite understand the alternatives out there, and many of them are risk averse, and they want to stick with the Portland cement because that’s what they know once they’re used to. So that’s what they can guarantee the safety of. Can you share with us what you would say if someone asked that a safety question in relation to it.
Speaker 4 [00:16:16] What I would say is that the level of due diligence and testing that happens, especially in Canada and the U.S., is pretty much top of the line globally. We’ve been doing this work at a commercial scale in Calgary now for three years. We’ve been able to get a lot of proof from the commercial projects that we’ve gone into with our local partners. I don’t think that there are any carbon utilization companies like ours that would strongly vouch and say, you know, put us into a bridge deck tomorrow or put us into major structural parts of the Green Line project as an example. However, even in these major infrastructure projects, about 20 to 30% of the scope is nonstructural. That has a very low risk profile.
Speaker 1 [00:17:01] Apoorv, we’re talking about a range of climate technologies on this episode, and so often it’s not really about the technology, it’s about the economics of it and the financing of it. That is the barrier. Give us a bit of a sense of the economics of carbon utilization and what you’re up against and what you’re trying to take advantage of.
Speaker 4 [00:17:20] You know, cement is by far the biggest manmade commodity produced every year. The only thing that humans use more than cement is water. And so, as you can imagine, that has a huge downward impact on the cost of cement. And what we’ve been very fortunate with is that by showing that we can take these waste materials and upcycle them, we’re essentially able to come up with a cost profile of our technology that on an operating level, can compete very significantly, even with the local cost of cement production. And that’s really important because as these, tailwinds around carbon pricing and other incentives become more prominent, we believe that delta is actually going to keep swinging consistently towards us. And in our opinion, you know, creating something that’s economically viable is critically important to getting any level of meaningful adoption, between now and 2030.
Speaker 2 [00:18:13] What are the best use cases and the most common types of projects you’re seeing for your products?
Speaker 4 [00:18:18] I would say pretty much anything that falls under the nonstructural kind of application space. So this could be anything from sidewalks to Jersey barriers. It could be precast products, non load bearing walls in kind of low rise buildings. All of these applications would be fair game. And definitely external applications are really interesting avenues for us as well. And one of the reasons why we’re trying as much as possible to kind of raise awareness of our solution.
Speaker 1 [00:18:43] One of the challenges in the whole materials space is the standards which we all get to take for granted. Our buildings and our bridges hold up because of generations of work establishing standards, and a lot of good people need to look at these new products or new material mixes and say, not ready for prime time. We don’t want to put too much weight literally on these materials. How are we going to balance that challenge of innovating while protecting ourselves?
Speaker 4 [00:19:12] Ultimately, it’s going to boil down to discipline, decision making and calculated risks. I think we need to take a measured response, and we cannot kind of look at this through a wide lens and in broad strokes. There are many, many opportunities where we can do this at the local level without taking undue risks, definitely with lives, but even with performance. And that doesn’t necessarily mean that we have to slow down the transition. I think we just have to be very careful with where we implement these technologies and guide them through.
Speaker 2 [00:19:40] Looking ahead, what are your plans for scaling up carbon upcycling and CCUs technologies? What do you hope to see in five years?
Speaker 4 [00:19:47] Our mission, Theresa, is to be the most impactful carbon tech company of the decade. And if we can show that we can do this cost effectively while producing a product that actually helps lower emissions downstream through the displacement of carbon intensive materials like cement, we believe we would have done a really good job in reducing the emissions overall in and making our positive mark in this space. I think we have a core base of knowledge when it comes to construction, when it comes to, you know, carbon management, how to couple those together and, and lead that into a circular value proposition that makes sense holistically, is the challenge. But iterative development and leveraging the resources and skill sets that we’ve built over almost centuries is, in our view, the way to do it.
Speaker 1 [00:20:32] That’s brilliant. We need more tinkerers. Thanks for being on Disruptors.
Speaker 4 [00:20:36] Absolutely, John. Thank you.
Speaker 1 [00:20:41] Our final guest, Louis Tremblay, is the CEO of Flo EV Charging and a trailblazer in the field of electric mobility in Canada. Flo’s goal is to accelerate the adoption of EVs by offering a convenient and consistent charging experience, and currently enables more than 1.5 million charging events a month with more than 100,000 stations across North America. Louis, welcome to Disruptors.
Speaker 5 [00:21:05] Hi John, thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 [00:21:07] Let’s start with the flow story. Louis, you operate an extensive charging ecosystem — close to half a million members. How is Flo helping Canadians make the switch to EVs?
Speaker 5 [00:21:18] I would say the goal that we have since our foundation is really to make sure drivers that want to switch to electric vehicle have access to a reliable charging network, and that every time they use one of our chargers, that it works so people can feel confident to drive around Canada and rely on the Flo network.
Speaker 2 [00:21:39] I’m an EV driver and something that I’ve experienced is the inconsistency with charging rates in different locations. How does Flo differentiate itself from other competitors and how do you think about how you price?
Speaker 5 [00:21:54] Yeah, pricing is definitely an interesting subject. Over the last 15 years, there’s been an evolution in pricing. One thing that I’m really proud of is we did work closely with Measurement Canada to make kilowatt hour billing possible, and we did lobby to make that a reality. It’s been of a challenge. Still part of the complexity of having consistency from one charger to another, one province to another. But this is definitely a place where Flo is acting to make fir pricing for EV drivers.
Speaker 1 [00:22:27] Well, it’s pretty normal now, and much more so than even 24 months ago to see EVs not just in big cities, but right across the country. What we don’t see is the infrastructure that all those EVs rely on. How concerned should we be about the readiness of infrastructure for an inflection point of EV sales?
Speaker 5 [00:22:45] Definitely we should be concerned, John. There’s a lot that still needs to be done. We need to work with governments with OEMs, to make sure that there is sufficient charging, whether it’s, you know, fast charging in between cities and communities or curbside chargers in the city where you have a garage or fence. But one thing that is really exciting these days is there’s more EV models. You know, we used to have cars that didn’t have enough range, that didn’t suit a family like mine. And now we’re starting to have pickup trucks, SUVs, vans. So we’re seeing a portfolio of products that are available. The pricing of batteries are getting down. And it’s a good dynamic because we start to see the consumer to be in the driver’s seat. They have options. So it really creates what we want. It’s a consumer market where people fights to give more option, better pricing, more features to consumers.
Speaker 2 [00:23:48] As EVs expand into different vehicle types, what are the challenges and hurdles that we still have to overcome to fully have a mainstream EV culture?
Speaker 5 [00:23:56] There’s still a lot to do. It’s a transition, right? There’s still a lot of chargers to be deployed. Ultra-fast chargers because now the cars have bigger batteries. Pickup trucks have double the size of battery than the car that were on the market a couple of years ago. So we need the support of government. Everyone wants to fight climate change, but this transition is a challenging one. So we need to make sure that all the stakeholders, whether it’s the government, the OEM, the utilities, the electric company that are making sure that we’re making this transition together.
Speaker 2 [00:24:31] How does Flo think about where it builds its next chargers? You mentioned there’s EV pickups. There’s different vehicle types. There’s also different driver segments. There’s commercial fleets. How do you think about those segments as you build up the next chargers?
Speaker 5 [00:24:47] For most of our network deployment, we’ve been selling stations to anyone that wanted a charger at home, at work, whether it’s a fast charger or curbside charger. But as the market matures, you’re totally right, Theresa. As a network operator, we need to make sure that we’re going to have great coverage, making sure people can access charging everywhere. But as we’re thinking about that, as we have more capabilities to understand the needs of EV drivers, because we have accumulate this data set that tells us where EV drivers need charging, we also need to be able to invest ourself and to get a return on that investment, we need to put the charger where our people are. So it’s really shifting gears. Flow used to sell and operate this network. We are now deploying our own charger and owning them. So to me it’s like after 15 years on this business, it’s a big, big shift, but also a way to make sure that the experience for EV drivers, will be better because of that coverage we’re going to be able to have.
Speaker 1 [00:25:53] You have a wonderful perspective in terms of seeing how drivers are evolving and how the sector is evolving. With that growth, what changes are you seeing in the way that consumers behave?
Speaker 5 [00:26:05] It’s a big shift as things are evolving and it’s getting more mainstream people. I like to refer to my wife or my mom. They don’t care about all this complexity. They just want to drive from point A to point B, but this is exactly what we want, right? It’s people that they don’t fear. They don’t have that range anxiety to just want to embark into it. So this is definitely the years we’re in. We’re seeing more people getting into the EV because they don’t fear anymore. But the promise we have to meet and I’m talking about us and other charging networks, is to making sure we don’t leave them stranded.
Speaker 1 [00:26:49] If you can look out over the next five years, what do you think Canada needs to come to grips with to be a leader in this space?
Speaker 5 [00:26:57] We are not in a bad position. I would say in Canada we have some of the most aggressive targets on the planet. That being said, the infrastructure deployment needs to come and I hope it will come with the mending requirement on the reliability and charging experience, like it needs to bring a better experience to me than the internal combustion car. So we still need the government support, but we need to deploy and as we’re doing that, we should make sure also we invest into our industry from the mining, the batteries, all the value change up to the charging and the cars we need to invest there and what creates value for our country because it’s one of the best way to leverage that new economy.
Speaker 1 [00:27:38] Louis, that’s a great call to action for, for individual car owners and also for the country. Thanks so much for being on Disruptors.
Speaker 5 [00:27:45] Thank you John.
Speaker 1 [00:27:51] Theresa. Those were fascinating conversations. We heard from three clean tech pioneers in electric vehicles carbon utilization and methane measurement, a real spectrum of Canadian innovation. And through the conversations I kept thinking, wow, what a remarkable period this may be seen by history, especially if we’re able to scale these technologies and ensure that they transform the economy, but also our communities and society in very positive ways.
Speaker 2 [00:28:20] I love that the through line across all of these conversations is moving in some ways into the more boring questions and the more boring considerations. You know, it’s no longer the cool, exciting, oh, can we make this happen? Look at this cool new thing that we’re building over here now. It’s like, oh, actually, it’s how will people use this? How will we pay for it? How do we ensure that we can do proper change management to incorporate into people’s daily lives? Like these are boring, but such necessary things to have to consider, to build for, to design for. And I think that’s actually the more exciting part, because then it gets embedded into how we live. And that is the most important thing through this climate journey.
Speaker 1 [00:28:59] I love it. Maybe we can ask our producer to title this the boring episode because, you know, boring can be exciting, but boring is actually important. Getting all those details right is going to be critical. And if we put our minds to it, as we heard over and over again in this episode, this can be Canada’s decade of climate action, and disruptive technology has a huge role to play.
Speaker 2 [00:29:22] I completely agree, John. This requires action from everybody, public sectors, private sectors, and ultimately people. And the RBC Climate Action Institute, of which we are both members, has just released our flagship research report, Climate Action 2024 Double or Trouble. And I would encourage all listeners, please, if you’re interested in reading the report, visit RBC.com/cai
Speaker 1 [00:29:49] On the next episode, will be sitting down with Allison Nankivell. She’s the incoming CEO of MaRS Discovery District and speaking with some remarkable women who are overcoming challenges in the Canadian clean tech space. Until then, I’m John Stackhouse.
Speaker 2 [00:30:02] And I’m Trinh Theresa Do and this is Disruptors an RBC podcast. Talk to you soon.
[00:30:12] Disruptors, an RBC podcast is created by the RBC Thought Leadership Group and does not constitute a recommendation for any organization, product or service. For more disruptors content, visit RBC.com/Disruptors and leave us a five-star rating if you like our show.

This article is intended as general information only and is not to be relied upon as constituting legal, financial or other professional advice. A professional advisor should be consulted regarding your specific situation. Information presented is believed to be factual and up-to-date but we do not guarantee its accuracy and it should not be regarded as a complete analysis of the subjects discussed. All expressions of opinion reflect the judgment of the authors as of the date of publication and are subject to change. No endorsement of any third parties or their advice, opinions, information, products or services is expressly given or implied by Royal Bank of Canada or any of its affiliates.