Blog Post

Governance

Share this on:

Sign-up for our newsletter. You can unsubscribe anytime.

I was on a panel early in the fall at the University of Guelph to announce George Green’s appointment as the first Kinross Knowledge Exchange Chair in Environmental Governance. As someone whose day job is to promote research and policy that protects the environment and stimulates innovation in the economy, the day at Guelph really caused me to reflect on the roles that governance and knowledge exchange have, and the critical moment in time we are at for each.

Governments need to raise money from somewhere. As the debts of western governments have ballooned through the prolonged economic crisis, this is especially true today. In addition to providing services to its citizens - be they fans of big government or small - keeping debt levels manageable requires income streams.

One of Sustainable Prosperity’s recent research projects was to identify the environmental markets in Canada and estimate their value. We defined these markets as the exchange of an ecosystem good or service between a buyer and a seller. Tradable ecosystem goods and services include greenhouse gas or water pollutant credits, or the promise to carry out measures that should improve water quality, or the conservation of a particular ecosystem or wildlife habitat.

On November 8th, as the inaugural speaker for their Environmental Policy and Economics speaker series,Sustainable Prosperity, the University of Ottawa’s Institute of the Environment and Carleton University’s School of Administration and Public Policy hosted Nick Johnstone from the OECD’s Environment Directorate. Mr.

Most of the scenarios that have been mooted for how Canada could achieve its climate change commitments stipulate a very significant role for carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies.

Creating policy is both an art and a science. The politics around climate change makes this especially true of anything touching energy or climate policy. It is difficult for governments to strike the right balances – between evidence-based analysis and public and political desires; between timeliness and inclusiveness of process; between transparency and secrecy.

People have argued for centuries about how to fix capitalism. One of the latest and most practical contributions to the debate is the concept of the B Corporation. B Corporations are described as “a new type of corporation which uses the power of business to solve social and environmental problems”.

There are two types of B Corps:

A legal status, distinct from incorporating as a not-for-profit corporation or a business corporation, and is only available in certain jurisdictions (“benefit corporations”);

The number of individuals and organizations calling for Canada to price carbon is becoming impressive – the ,a href="http://www.ceocouncil.ca/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/Energy-Conservation-Paper-FINAL-December-20111.pdf">Canadian Council of Chief Executives, Shell Canada, the Economist magazine, to name but a few.

You don’t need a crystal ball to imagine what living in a changing climate will feel like. This summer, record-breaking temperatures, drought, ice melt and wildfires have offered plenty of experience of what it’s like to live in a warming world.

Community and interest group involvement in environmental decision-making is currently a major issue – both internationally as Canadian companies seek to access resources in other countries, and domestically as proposed changes to environmental assessment law raise questions about the adequacy of legislated public consultation for major industrial developments in the future.

Governance

Step Away From the Cliff

Sustainable Prosperity Takes a Closer Look at Environmental Markets

Which policies best induce technological innovation?

The Economics of Carbon Capture and Storage: Notes on a workshop

Climate Policy Based on Analysis and Public Consultation

The evolution of capitalism

Putting a Price on Carbon: Habit #4 of the 9 Habits of Highly Effective Resource Economies

Connecting the dots: The summer of 2012

Up to standards: how can industry engage with civil society?