Doubling down on a good idea: Ontario announces its second green bond

Ontario issues its third – and largest – green bond

Good ideas are worth repeating. And the Province of Ontario has found that green bonds are a good idea. On January 26, 2017, Ontario issued its third green bond – it’s largest yet – a reopening of its 2016 bond amounting to $800 million.

A good idea spreads: Quebec issues its first green bond

The Province of Quebec is following Ontario’s lead, issuing its first green bond this month.

Ontario 2017 Budget: Spending cap-and-trade revenues and other clean growth measures

On April 27, the Government of Ontario presented its first balanced budget in 9 years. The headlines had to do with its focus on health care and housing. But there are a number of clean economy efforts included in the budget as well.

2017 A banner year for green bonds – but there’s ample room for growth

Today, we release the sixth annual Green Bonds Canada Report, tracking the highlights from the current year, emerging trends, and the opportunities ahead for green bonds in Canada.

Bonds and Climate Change 2013

In our 2013 Canadian supplement to this year's Bonds and Climate Change report by the Climate Bonds Initiative, Sustainable Prosperity found that Canada's C$5.7 billion-dollar green bond universe is starting to mature.

Bonds and Climate Change 2012

Bonds and Climate Change 2014

This is the third annual update of the Bonds and Climate Change report and its Canadian supplement. Since the first report in 2012, the climate bonds landscape in both Canada and the world has changed dramatically.

Bonds & Climate Change: The State of the Market 2015

The potential role for green bonds to accelerate mitigation, adaptation, and innovation goals

Sustainable Prosperity and the Climate Bonds Initiative prepared a joint submission to the Government of Canada's "Let's Talk Climate" consultation process, and to the co-chairs of the federal-provincial-territorial working groups formed under the Vancouver Declaration on Clean Growth and Climate Change.

Bonds & Climate Change: The State of the Market 2016

2016 marks the 5th edition of the Climate Bonds Initiative’s State of the Market report.

Bonds & Climate Change: The State of the Market 2017

The 2017 Green Bonds report marks the sixth annual stocktake of green bonds and green finance in Canada, produced in partnership with the Climate Bonds Initiative.

Guest Blog: Through the COVID Looking Glass - 12 Design Principles for Winning the Peace

This post supports the work of the Task Force for a Resilient Recovery.

Stewart Elgie talks smart stimulus on CBC Radio’s All in a Day

SPI’s Stewart Elgie spoke with CBC Radio for a segment on building a smart, green economic recovery for Canada post-pandemic

What Canada's COVID-19 economic stimulus plan should look like when it comes

Three lessons for stimulating a smart, post-COVID economic recovery that puts people to work today building the economy of tomorrow

Green stimulus offers Canada a way forward for escaping the next recession

Canada’s stimulus spending needs to be green, targeting low-carbon investments that offer productivity benefits and long-term stable employment in addition to progress toward building a cleaner economy.

Should we bail out the old, or bail in the new?

As industry groups head to Ottawa and the provincial capitals for help, we need to make sure this unprecedented aid aims not just to help everyone get by, but also to help transition to a sustainable and prosperous future.

Building A Green Economic Stimulus Package for Canada – 2009

During the economic crisis of 2008-2009, SPI wrote the authoritative report on designing green stimulus. It has aged extremely well.

Ottawa’s bail-outs need to help airline and oil and gas sectors grow greener

If done right, the federal government can use bail-out support for struggling industries to help them preserve jobs today and meet their goals for future success in a low-carbon economy.

What could a “just transition” look like for fossil fuel dependent regions?

It is especially timely to consider the call for “just transition” plans, which seek to ensure fossil fuel-dependent communities and workers are not left behind.

COVID-19 could cause a dip in global emissions. Here’s why we shouldn’t celebrate

When we emerge from this health crisis, let’s turn our minds to a green economic recovery, and to how we can turn a blip into a long-term trend. Until that happens, let’s put the celebratory champagne on ice.

Supply chains are being tested by COVID-19. Next up: the climate test

Building resilience in our supply chains will help prepare Canada for the next pandemic, as well as the effects of climate change.

Webinar | Climate and COVID-19: How do we make progress on climate policy today?

SPI’s Stewart Elgie will participate in a virtual town hall to address what COVID-19 means for climate change policies.

Guest Blog: How COVID-19 is impacting the plastics recycling industry

Before COVID-19 hit the world, things were really starting to look up for the plastics recycling industry. How can it regain its investment traction in the face of economic recession?

Special Research Funding Opportunity

Climate and Environmental Policy in the context of COVID-19

Webinar | The Resilient Recovery Framework

This webinar will explore which measures create timely economic growth and jobs, support clean growth, and invest in our communities as we emerge from the COVID crisis.

Now that we’ve defined it, how do we measure and track a resilient recovery?

Canada needs to plan now to ensure its recovery actually supports resilience, sustainability and equity by closely measuring the effects of policies on recovery outcomes.

Canada’s recovery needs experimentalist governance and flexible regulations

More experimentalist approaches to governance and more flexible regulations are required to meet the challenge of economic recovery.

Guest Blog: Greening the Economic Recovery

We should use the post-pandemic recovery to decarbonize the world economy through affordable and workable policies.

Resilience and Renewal: Principles of Circularity for Post-COVID Recovery

As we build post-COVID economies and societies, everyone will benefit if we are relentless in our continued curiosity about, and commitment to, resilience and renewal.

Guest Blog: How Natural Infrastructure Can Help Stimulate a Green Recovery

By investing in natural infrastructure and natural asset management we can create stable, full-time jobs for local workers and save municipalities money now, while also protecting ecological assets and offering relief to municipal budgets for a smart, clean future.

Guest Blog: Government investments can smooth worker transitions in a green economy, but must be used carefully

As Canada transitions to a zero-emission economy, workers will be affected in different ways. Our research provides evidence of how government investments can help workers affected by environmental regulation.

Will COVID Recovery Be a Tipping Point for the Circular Economy?

Might the shocks of the current global pandemic and economic slowdown to the socio-economic system present a tipping point and acceleration towards a circular economy?

Carbon pricing isn’t enough to drive a green recovery. Here’s why

Canada will need stimulus spending, and it should drive investment and jobs in green opportunities.

Video | The Resilient Recovery Framework

This webinar explains the Resilient Recovery Framework, for determining which post-COVID economic recovery measures are best suited for a long-term resilient recovery.

3 Ingredients for Smart Stimulus

We are about to make a once-in-a-generation investment in rebuilding Canada’s economy. Using this tool, we can help make sure those stimulus dollars are used to make smart investments in Canada’s present and future.

The Resilient Recovery Framework

SPI submitted the Resilient Recovery Framework to the Task Force for a Resilient Recovery on May 19. It proposes assessing government recovery measures against nine criteria.

Pilot projects are a smart place to put stimulus dollars

The federal government should put money behind piloting promising solutions that offer tangible benefits, de-risk future investment and create new markets for jobs for unemployed and underemployed young people.

Not Your Typical Recession: Analysis of the April Labour Force Survey

Today’s release of the April Labour Force Survey data confirms that this economic downturn is unlike anything we have ever seen before in Canada. As such, it will require a new way of thinking and a new set of tools to combat the recession.

8 conditions Canada should attach to upcoming oil and gas bail-outs

If additional federal aid is given, it should come with strings attached that help Canada’s oil and gas sector become more resilient to price shocks and to support its transition to a low-carbon economy.

Webinar | Species in the Balance: Partnering on tools and incentives to recover species at risk

The overwhelming majority of Canadians want species at risk populations to recover. But population trends are sobering and will persist without intervention from policymakers. This project seeks to provide actionable guidance and recommendations for how governments and other stakeholders can unlock policy tools and incentives to improve species at risk recovery work in Canada.

Sharing the Earth with Species at Risk

Since its humble beginnings in New York City in 1970, Earth Day has been a celebration of the ecosystems and biodiversity on which we all depend for food, livelihoods, and our quality of life, as well as a call to action to share the earth and not squander our natural heritage.

Why we need to get species at risk policy right

Species at risk populations continue to decline – the status quo simply isn’t helping them enough. But over time, the right mix of economic incentives and policy tools just might be able to turn things around.

Nature conservation on private land is essential but undersupplied – economic tools can help

Rewarding nature conservation on private land provides policymakers with a golden opportunity to enhance nature’s services for the public benefit while ensuring viable livelihoods for private landowners.

Species in the Balance: Partnering on tools and incentives to recover species at risk

This report draws upon multiple sources of insight including a workshop with key stakeholders, a literature review, interviews with SAR recovery experts, and an online survey administered to over 100 informants in academia, government, industry and ENGOs.

Webinar | Species in the Balance: Partnering on tools and incentives to recover species at risk

The overwhelming majority of Canadians want species at risk populations to recover. But population trends are sobering and will persist without intervention from policymakers.

Economic Instruments for Protecting Species at Risk on Private Land

89% of Canadians want to protect species at risk. This Policy Brief focuses on economic tools for protecting species at risk on private land.

Economic Tools for Increasing Nature Conservation on Private Land

This brief explores policy tools that can help protect ecosystem services for public benefit while ensuring viable livelihoods for private landowners.

Linking natural capital and productivity: A roundup of two recent studies

For many of those who have been following Sustainable Prosperity's work, you've likely heard about our Linking Natural Capital & Productivity project.

Student Blog: Ecosystems and productivity--A different way to look at the birds and the bees

Canadians have a good understanding of how the natural resources we use (like timber, oil and water) underpin our economy, but we understand less about the economic contributions of ecosystems.

The Importance of Natural Capital to Canada's Economy

Getting Biodiversity Offsets Right

In Canada, both our culture and our economy are linked to biodiversity: our economy is in large part underpinned by the extraction of natural resources while our cultural identity is often linked to our abundant biodiversity and large areas of wilderness.

Nature, it's in our Business, Select Case Studies in Natural Capital Accounting

Growing Risk, The impact of changes in agricultural production on consumer expenditures in Canada

Environmental trends, particularly declining water availability, soil depletion, and climate change, will impact food production in Canada and globally.

Linking Natural Capital and Productivity - The Rationale for Building an Environmentally Adjusted Measure of Productivity

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.”

Natural Capital Measurement at Statistics Canada: Current Status and Untapped Potential

This report provides an overview of Statistics Canada’s efforts to measure the state of Canada’s natural capital (ecosystems, land and sub-soil resources), the demands placed upon it by human activities and the efforts undertaken to manage these demands.

Partial versus Total Factor Productivity: Assessing Resource Use in Natural Resource Industries in Canada

This report discusses the strengths and weaknesses of each type of productivity measure from theoretical and methodological perspectives.

Natural assets are cost effective, resilient & a key component of sustainable service delivery

Natural assets provide many of the same services to communities as engineered assets but are generally not accounted for and/or are undervalued in asset management practices.

Webinar: Municipal Natural Assets Initiative

This webinar was presented on April 13, 2017 by Sara Jane O'Neill, Senior Research Associate at Smart Prosperity Institute.

Defining and Scoping Municipal Natural Assets

This report proposes a new definition for Municipal Natural Assets and outlines the scope of the Municipal Natural Asset Management (MNAM) approach.

Towards a Collaborative Strategy for Municipal Natural Asset Management: Private Lands

This report highlights how local governments can include private land and private landowners in a comprehensive municipal natural asset management framework. 

Identifying Barriers and Opportunities within the Professional Planning Practice in Ontario

This report identifies the top five barriers and opportunities in professional planning practice in Ontario that stand to affect the refinement, replication, and scaling up of municipal natural asset management projects.

Municipal Natural Assets Initiative | Results from the First National Cohort: Decision-Maker Summary

MNAI has developed a methodology to help local governments identify, value and manage natural assets. This decision-maker summary provides a high-level overview of each pilot project and their key findings.

Opportunities to Fund Municipal Natural Asset Management Projects

This report reviews six of Canada’s major infrastructure funding programs from the perspective of a manager wanting to fund a municipal natural asset project. It identifies key considerations in determining project eligibility and funding terms and offers an easy-to-use program overview chart.

Funding for Municipal Natural Asset Management

Evidence of the value of municipal natural asset management from a growing number of Canadian municipalities provides a strong rationale to fund natural assets and their management.