On March 1st & 2nd, the 2018 Economics and Environmental Policy Research Network (EEPRN) Symposium took place at the Museum of Nature in Ottawa. This year’s Symposium was our largest ever, with over 100 of the top environment-economy scholars from across Canada and the world, and policy experts from government and business coming together for two days to explore different aspects of clean innovation, carbon pricing, climate finance, and clean growth. The Symposium provided an excellent opportunity for members of the research network, including academics, graduate students, and private and public sector partners, to connect with domestic experts and practitioners. The agenda for the Symposium can be found here.

The Symposium opened with initial remarks and welcome from Derek Hermanutz, Director General, Economic Analysis Directorate at Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) and Stewart Elgie, Executive Chair, Smart Prosperity Institute (SPI). The morning began with a number of panels, featuring federal and provincial policymakers setting the stage for the discussion by describing the current landscape of clean innovation policy in Canada. World-renowned expert on mission-driven innovation, Mariana Mazzucato (University College London and author of The Entrepreneurial State), gave a much anticipated keynote following lunch. Mariana’s keynote was bookended by two panels of top academics, presenting their research on environmental regulation, carbon pricing, competitiveness and climate policy mixes as they relate to driving clean innovation.

Day two opened with a keynote from ECCC Deputy Minister, Stephen Lucas, who focused his remarks on the progress made under the Pan-Canadian Framework on Clean Growth and Climate. A panel of private sector representatives, experts and government policy makers made up the next panel on how public policy can incent private investment in clean innovation. Over lunch, discussion sessions were held to explore new data opportunities and clean innovation in natural resource industries. Closing out the Symposium, were two academic panels on the role of policy predictability in encouraging long-term investment in clean innovation and governance models for a low carbon economy.

Copies of the presentations delivered in the various sessions throughout the Symposium are available here:

• Celine Bak
• Catherine Beaudry
• Fred Beauregard-Tellier
• Neil Bouwer
• Maria Carvalho
• Ben Cashore
• Rob Crabtree
• Margaret Dalziel
• Antoine Dechezlepretre
• Paul Ekins
• Stewart Elgie
• Carolyn Fischer
• Wayne Gray
• Brendan Haley
• Nick Johnstone
• Peter McArthur
• Richard Morgenstern
• Amy Nugent
• Daniel Rosenbloom
• Sandra Schillo
• Gregor Semieniuk
• Margaret Taylor
• David Wolfe

To learn more about the Economics and Environmental Policy Research Network click here.

Questions? Please contact us at research.network@smartprosperity.ca