Research with Impact: Announcing the New Round of EEPRN Funded Projects

September 14, 2017

Smart Prosperity Institute is pleased to announce the four research projects to be selected for funding in response to the latest Economics and Environmental Policy Research Network (EEPRN) request for proposals.

The final decision was not easy. We received over 45 promising proposals from across Canada and even some international proposals from countries like the United States and France.

The four chosen projects range widely in their areas of study and chosen methodology, but together they reflect the network’s interest to support research with the greatest potential to advance innovative environmental policies in four priority research areas (policies for a low carbon economy; innovation and competitiveness, conservation, and data set development and linkages).

Financing the Transition to a Low-Carbon Economy

Project title: Strategies and Policies for Integrating the Canadian Financial Sector into Financing the Transition to a Low-Carbon Economy

Principal Investigators: Olaf Weber and Michael Wood

Recognizing that significant investments are needed in climate change mitigation and adaptation in order for Canada to achieve its climate targets, this project will look at the types of policies and strategies that are needed to nudge the Canadian private financial sector to invest in the transformation to a low-carbon technology.

Do Carbon taxes Kill Jobs? Latest Evidence from BC's Carbon Tax

Project title: Do Carbon Taxes Kill Jobs? Evidence of Heterogeneous Impacts from British Columbia

Principal Investigator: Hendrik Wolff

As Canadian jurisdictions begin to design carbon pricing approaches to comply with the federal carbon price benchmark set to start in 2018, and existing provincial carbon pricing regimes take hold, important questions emerge around the unintended impact that these policies will have on jobs. This project seeks to expand the existing empirical literature on the employment effects of the BC carbon tax and deepen our understanding of the costs and benefits of carbon emissions regulation.

A Balancing Act - Emission Policies and Resource Royalties in Alberta

Project title: Optimal Finite Resource Royalties in the Presence of Priced Externalities

Principal Investigators: Andrew Leach, Branko Boskovic, and Chuck Mason

Carbon pricing may also have unintended consequences in a natural resource context like Alberta, and determining how and where a carbon policy is applied, can have real effects on resource development and emissions. This project explores the interaction between resource royalties and emission policies, which will help inform how to appropriately design royalty taxes in conjunction with climate policy.

Evaluating Environmental Stewardship Programs in the Agricultural Sector

Project Title: Evaluation of Growing Forward Environmental Stewardship Programs: Is Beneficial Management Practice Adoption Environmentally and Economically Effective

Principal Investigator: Peter Boxall

This project will evaluate the effectiveness of the Growing Forward’s environmental stewardship programs. A federal-provincial initiative, Growing Forward supports innovation, competiveness and market development in Canada’s agri-food and agri-products sector through cost-sharing funding opportunities, including funding to promote environmental improvements in farming operations. By evaluating the performance of projects implemented in Alberta, the researchers hope to use their findings to inform the environmental stewardship aspects of the next phase of Growing Forward.

The 2017-2018 call for proposals is now closed but please stay tuned to learn more about the network’s research outcomes and find out about other funding opportunities.

Interested in knowing more? Please contact us at research.network@smartprosperity.ca or visit the EEPRN project page for more information.

The EEPRN is undertaken with financial support of the Government of Canada through Environment and Climate Change Canada.