Carbon prices don’t work in quite the same way as other taxes or levies. Unlike income or sales taxes, which are primarily revenue tools, carbon prices are all about reducing emissions (sure, they also raise revenues, but that’s a separate issue). But if you reduce your GHG emissions, you can avoid the carbon price. In […]
Today, the federal government sent letters to its provincial counterparts laying out a timeline for implementing pan-Canadian carbon pricing. It lays out timing for federal legislation, for the provinces to demonstrate that their provincial policies are consistent with the federal standard, and for the federal backstop to kick in if they aren’t. Clearly laying out […]
Climate policy can be complicated—especially if you’re talking to economists. Carbon pricing? Complementary policies? Marginal abatement costs? Let’s unpack some of this jargon in the simplest ways possible. What’s the problem? Negative externalities occur when someone’s actions impose costs on others. For example, consuming energy creates pollution, which has costs. Health impacts from air pollution […]
This week, Alberta released its Carbon Competitiveness Incentive policy, which lays out the mechanics of its output-based pricing (OBP) system. We’ve talked a lot of about output-based pricing (also known as “output-based allocations” or OBAs) here at Ecofiscal as a sensible way to maintain incentives to reduce emissions, while also addressing concerns around leakage and […]
Nova Scotia is moving forward with a provincial cap-and-trade system. It’s great the province is embracing carbon pricing, and Ontario and Quebec have shown that cap-and-trade can work. Still, choosing carbon pricing is just the first step. Carbon pricing is the lowest-cost approach to reducing GHG emissions—but only if it’s designed well. What do we […]
The news from last week: Manitoba is moving forward with its own Made-in-Manitoba Climate and Green Plan. Kudos to Manitoba and the Pallister government for stepping up on carbon pricing and putting forward a plan that seems to have support from a broad set of interests. But how do the details stack up? How far […]