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Cities are taking a leadership role in addressing global climate change and reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, but policy innovations are needed to help cities move from goals to outcomes. Pilot projects are one means by which cities are experimenting with new ways of governing and financing climate change mitigation. In this paper, we develop a framework for understanding the role of pilot projects in urban policy innovation: their emergence and rationale, and the means by which they ultimately scale up and out to reduce GHG emissions. We use this framework to evaluate a pilot project for retrofitting social housing buildings in Toronto. We find the initial pilot project helped address the challenges of pursuing deep retrofits of social housing. Scaling these lessons up to the city level required overcoming challenges to financing and coordinating a larger project; scaling out to the provincial level revealed institutional and political obstacles to pursuing the co‐benefits of deep building retrofits in social housing. Bridging agents play an important role in both scaling processes. The analysis reveals the additive nature of urban policy innovation and the dynamic interplay of change agents and institutional and political context in innovation processes. [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]

This paper tests for the applicability of the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis at the Canadian and provincial/territorial levels using greenhouse gas emissions as an indicator for environmental degradation. The hypothesis is tested using provincial and territorial panel data from 1990 to 2014. The results vary depending on the econometric estimation method. The pooled regression results are mixed, with the EKC hypothesis confirmed at the Canadian level and in half of the provinces and territories. However, the fixed-effects regression results confirm the EKC hypothesis at the Canadian level and in all provinces and territories. The results also highlight the significance of technological change and province/territory specific characteristics in determining the level of greenhouse gas emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of sub-global participation in greenhouse gas mitigation efforts, this paper investigates the effectiveness of a Canada-U.S. emissions bubble under their existing regional trade agreement. It also explores the potential economic impact of carbon tariff harmonization through the implementation of a common Canada-U.S. external border tariff adjustment as a mean to address competitiveness issues. Using a multi-region, multi-sector computable general equilibrium model the paper finds that the creation of an emission bubble between the two countries could improve efficiency. The findings also suggest that a carbon tariff harmonization policy could give rise to distributional issues among Annex I regions and could fail to mitigate the negative competitiveness impacts of carbon abatement policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accurate estimation of greenhouse gas emissions and detailed monitoring of the carbon cycle are important for mitigation of and adaptation to climate change. On agricultural land, annual herbaceous vegetation is not considered a carbon sink, whereas perennial woody vegetation accumulates biomass over multiple years and does represent a carbon sink. This paper presents a study to estimate aboveground woody carbon stock in 1990 and its annual change from 1990 to 2000 on Canada’s cropland. The cropland was stratified into zones according to soils, climate and cropping systems, within which sample plots were randomly selected and paired aerial photographs corresponding to circa 1990 and 2000 were interpreted to detect changes in perennial woody vegetation such as trees, shrubs, orchards and vineyards. Woody biomass volumes lost as a result of land use change and gained as a result of planting and growth were estimated using species composition and growth rates typical of each zone, as obtained from published literature, forest reports and charts and forestry expert knowledge. Census of agriculture data was used to scale up the sample level results to zone and national levels. Results showed that on Canada’s cropland, the aboveground woody carbon stock in 1990 was 33.7 ± 8.8 Tg. Between 1990 and 2000, the area covered by woody vegetation was affected negatively by removals and positively through planting and natural regeneration, leading to a net reduction in area. There was an annual increase of about 78.3 Gg over all cropland in Canada, with a net decrease in some ecozones. Although this is a comparatively small increase with a large uncertainty, it indicates that changes in woody carbon on cropland in Canada over the 1990–2000 period were relatively insignificant. Further studies may be needed to refine the carbon estimates and reduce uncertainties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To reduce greenhouse gas emissions from large industries the Canadian government proposed using a tradable emissions performance standard approach, where the intensity of emissions, rather than the absolute level, is regulated. Unlike a cap and trade system, an emissions performance standard does not guarantee a certain overall level of emission reductions, a fact that has led to significant criticism. However, because of the dynamics of performance standards, they may reduce concerns over reductions in international competitiveness in cases where a country has climate policies that are more aggressive than those of some of its trade partners. Likewise, a performance standard may mesh more efficiently with existing taxes and therefore cause less overall economic impact than an absolute cap and trade system. This paper considers the theoretical arguments for and against such a performance standard system and evaluates it in comparison to a cap and trade system using a dynamic general equilibrium model applied to Canada. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The objective of this paper is to assess the economic impacts of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by decreasing industrial output in Canada to a level that will meet the target set out in the Kyoto Protocol. The study uses an ecological–economic Input–Output model combining economic components valued in monetary terms with ecologic components – GHG emissions – expressed in physical terms. Economic and greenhouse gas emissions data for Canada are computed in the same sectoral disaggregation. Three policy scenarios are considered: the first one uses the direct emission coefficients to allocate the reduction in industrial output, while the other two use the direct plus indirect emission coefficients. In the first two scenarios, the reduction in industrial sector output is allocated uniformly across sectors while it is allocated to the 12 largest emitting industries in the last one. The estimated impacts indicate that the results vary with the different allocation methods. The third policy scenario, allocation to the 12 largest emitting sectors, is the most cost effective of the three as the impacts of the Kyoto Protocol reduces Gross Domestic Product by 3.1% compared to 24% and 8.1% in the first two scenarios. Computed economic costs should be considered as upper-bounds because the model assumes immediate adjustment to the Kyoto Protocol and because flexibility mechanisms are not incorporated. The resulting upper-bound impact of the third scenario may seem to contradict those who claim that the Kyoto Protocol would place an unbearable burden on the Canadian economy. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]