While academic economists have long argued for a carbon tax, the political realities have driven policy to cap and trade. In response, those smart folks thinking of good policy design came up with the “safety valve” to allow for cost containment. The safety value concept has political appeal since it essentially caps [...]
Jack Mintz provides an nice overview of the key issues facing Canada with respect to carbon taxation (see here). I like the article because it is somewhat boring…it reveals some key issues, nestles carbon taxation within existing tax structures in Canada and generally points to why a carbon tax is likely the way to [...]
I had the good fortune of being briefed on the details of the federal government’s climate plan this week. What is interesting is that the briefing occurred during a break in discussions of how a carbon tax might be applied nationally and might complement cap and trade. As I sat listening to the [...]
What I now see as a primary goal of climate policy researchers is to address one by one the important climate policy questions that are oft cited as reasons for inaction. Competitiveness of course tops this list. Simply, folks argue that with domestic climate policy our exporters and other domestic producers will be [...]
The climate science skeptics are turning into climate policy skeptics with each new climate policy announced. The basic argument is that the policy will be ineffective at reducing emissions and so is a waste of effort and money. There is a particular focus on the ineffectiveness of carbon taxes to reduce emissions (here),
At the [...]
The federal Minister of Finance again needs to be commended for his statements that Canada needs some sort of climate policy consistency at the federal and provincial levels (here),
“It’s probably inevitable we have some different approaches now that don’t fit together,” Mr. Flaherty told reporters at a news conference, after a speech to the Vancouver [...]
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