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This paper develops a framework for a financial, economic, and stakeholder analysis of a residential rooftop solar net-metering program. The empirical focus of the paper is the net-metering program in Ontario, Canada, but the methodology is applicable to evaluating other public programs. The results highlight that without the Federal Government's subsidy for the initial investment cost, net-metered solar systems are not financially viable for representative households. Moreover, the stakeholder analysis reveals that for each additional net-metered system installed in Ontario, non-net-metered households experience financial losses of six times the benefits to the net-metered households. The net losses to the Federal Government of Canada and the Canadian economy are five and nine times the benefit to the net-metered households, respectively. The only stakeholder who benefits marginally is the Government of Ontario. In terms of environmental benefits, our estimate of the cost of greenhouse gas abatement by residential net-metered solar is 325 CAD per ton of CO 2 , which is significantly higher than the current (65 CAD in 2023) and future (170 CAD by 2030) national carbon price set by the Government of Canada. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Residential energy efficiency improvements have a great potential to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Evidences suggest that there is an underinvestment in residential energy efficiency improvements, pointing out the existence of "energy efficiency gap". To address this in Canada, the government has introduced home energy efficiency audit programmes since 1998, to encourage homeowners to get their homes audited professionally for energy efficiency and implement recommended upgrades. Using the 2011 and 2013 Household and Environment Surveys, this paper investigates whether household environmental behaviours have played roles in determining household participation in these audit programmes during the last 10 years. To the best of our knowledge, no study in Canada has examined the association between household participation in other pro-environmental activities and energy efficiency audit programmes. We find that pro-environmental behaviours such as water conservation, composting, recycling, participation in unpaid conservation activities, purchase of green goods, carrying own grocery shopping bags and lowering heating temperatures in winter nights are good predictors of household participation in energy efficiency audit programmes. Given that these other pro-environmental activities demonstrate environmental awareness of the households, our results suggest that besides the financial incentives, a more strategic and holistic approach to environmental programmes is both needed and possible when designing policies addressing residential energy efficiency gap. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For over two decades, municipal climate progress has been inventoried and analysed using a common reporting framework. While useful for highlighting the extent of municipal engagement in greenhouse gas mitigation efforts, we know little about how comprehensive this reporting framework is. Are municipal governments engaging in mitigation activities outside this framework? And what about climate adaptation activity for which no long-standing milestone reporting framework has existed? Based on results from a national survey of municipal governments in Canada, the paper reveals that municipal governments are engaged in many climate activities and processes that common inventories and reporting systems do not capture. The paper argues that these ‘in between activities’ – the not-yet counted climate actions that take place between and outside of milestone initiation and completion – have practical importance for future climate action and theoretical importance by complementing growing evidence about the nature of municipal climate activities and climate governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The widely held view is that effective action on climate change requires commitment by national governments to international agreements. Developed nations like Canada and Australia continue to fall short in their commitments to emissions reduction targets established under the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. Australia refused to ratify its Kyoto commitments until 2008 and Canada withdrew its commitment in 2011. Subnational governments in both countries have been active in developing policy responses to climate change yet remain largely excluded as serious policy partners in national mitigation and adaptation initiatives. This paper utilizes Kingdon’s Multiple Streams Framework to consider why subnational governments address climate change and the main factors shaping their policy choices. The experiences of the Australian state of Victoria and the Canadian province of Ontario provide examples through which to explore the factors contributing to climate policy opportunities and constraints faced by subnational governments in these countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A Multi-Dimensional Hypothetical Fuzzy Risk Simulation model is developed. • Decision-makers' preference is reflected to develop the optimized policies. • Multi-dimensional risks in 2030 of various policy options are revealed. • A special case study of the Province of Saskatchewan, Canada, is conducted. • Hypothetical Extraction Method is used to estimate the comprehensive performances. Changing climate is one of the most challenging environment issues worldwide. The objective of this paper is to develop a Multi-Dimensional Hypothetical Fuzzy Risk Simulation Model to facilitate the Greenhouse Gases mitigation policy development and multi-dimensional risk simulation. In detail, the comprehensive performances of various industries are evaluated and analyzed through Hypothetical Extraction Method. The preferences of decision-makers are considered through Analytic Hierarchy Process and Fuzzy Technique for Order Preference by Similarities to Ideal Solution method to develop the optimized Greenhouse Gases mitigation policies. The multi-dimensional risks of optimized Greenhouse Gases mitigation policies are simulated through RAS method. A detailed case study of the Province of Saskatchewan, Canada, is conducted to illustrate the potential benefits of the proposed model and support the Greenhouse Gases mitigation policy development. It is found that Electric power generation, transmission and distribution sector is the key industry in Saskatchewan. The government supports are suggested to be allocated to the Electric power generation, transmission and distribution sector, since it will benefit the province from environmental, economic, and urban metabolic perspectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]