This paper serves as the foundation for a two-year policy and research project titled “Linking Natural Capital and Productivity: A Strategy to Improve Canada’s Economic and Environmental Performance.”
Seven years ago, on July 1st, 2008, a new climate policy was born in British Columbia.
This paper reviews existing evidence on the effect of the tax on greenhouse emissions, the economy, and income distribution as well as provides new evidence on public perceptions of the tax.
After a full day spent discussing Canada’s track record on innovation, our potential to accelerate clean innovation, the policy levers available to make it happen and the practical experience from industry and academia, the question facing our final panel was ultimately – do we want to do things differently and drive greener growth? With clean innovation, that is the choice facing Canadians – are we happy, as Gord Lambert summarizes it, to “play the old game incrementally better?” or are we seeking something bigger and bolder? Given the economic and environmental risks and rewards at stake, the answer certainly seems to be to go big and bold, provided we have the right research to support good decision-making.
On Wednesday, June 3, Sustainable Prosperity had the honour of hosting Kristin Halvorsen, former Norwegian minister of finance and current director of CICERO, a Norwegian climate policy think-tank. Halvorsen discussed the workings of Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, as well as Norway’s 25 years of experience with a carbon tax.
Why has innovation in the digital electronics market far outstripped progress in the clean energy sectors?
While Session 1 raised the issue of faltering innovation in Canada, Session 2 speakers (Dr. Richard Newell, Duke University; Dr. Richard Hawkins, University of Calgary; Dr. Nick Johnstone, OECD Structural Policy Division; and Geoff McCarney, PhD candidate at Columbia University and Sustainable Prosperity’s Research Director) shed light on why this has occurred and how it can be corrected by examining the links between public policy and clean innovation.
“We are moving towards a global economy that increasingly will reward companies that are low-polluting, energy-efficient, eco-innovative and use natural capital more productively.” With this remark Stewart Elgie opened the conference, explaining that in order to compete internationally, Canadian companies will have to be better than their competitors at lowering their environmental footprint. And to do that requires accelerating the pace at which we develop and adopt clean innovations.
This Issue Summary is based on recent work conducted by Sustainable Prosperity that categorizes environmental taxes in Canada based on their goals and objectives.
