Developing a Climate Change Mitigation Policy Inventory for Canada †

Abstract

Across jurisdictions, all orders of governments are continually expanding their implementation of policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and mitigate the impacts of climate change. In federations like Canada, the mix of policies employed is further complicated by overlapping regulation both within and across federal and provincial/territorial governments. Canada's climate policy landscape is marked by variation in timing, effort, and approach, and driven by differences in economic structures, political ideologies, energy resources, and emissions among provinces and territories. However, a clear picture of the wide-ranging efforts undertaken across jurisdictions remains unavailable. To address this gap, we have developed a comprehensive and dynamic inventory of climate policies in Canada. This methodology paper outlines the steps taken to establish the inventory of 334 climate policies in Canada, the coding protocol used to assess policy design elements, and a description of the inventory findings. By shedding light on the complex web of climate policies in Canada, this inventory aims to provide researchers and policymakers with a clear picture of the ongoing efforts to reduce GHG emissions. It also seeks to inform future research on the impacts and interactions between policy tools in achieving a range of societal objectives.

Keywords: climate policy, policy mix, policy inventory, federalism, greenhouse gas emissions, policy design

JEL Classification: Q58, Q48