Full-cost accounting quantifies the environmental externalities associated with electricity generation based on modified life cycle analysis. The basic objective is to make explicit the magnitude of direct environmental costs borne by society from electricity generation, thereby promoting power sector investment decisions that are indeed least cost.
This research is part of the TERI-Canada Energy Efficiency Project undertaken with our partner, The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) in India. The TERI-Canada project was launched in 1999 with the objective of analyzing market-based, fiscal and regulatory approaches to promote energy efficiency and conservation. Full details can be found at the TERI-Canada project web site. The project is supported by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA).
The methodology developed by IISD brings together existing analytical models (i.e., Canada's Acid Deposition and Oxidation Model and the Air Quality Valuation Model) and data into one framework. Global warming damages and public health costs comprise the two major impact pathway categories under current study at IISD. The impact pathways are disaggregated by power generation technology. The general method is adapted from the Analysis and Modelling Group, Canada's National Climate Change Process, and a critical methodological refinement is made with respect to source-receptor modelling. The basic impact pathway modelling framework adopted in this study is shown in Figure 1.
Figure 1. Basic impact pathway modelling framework adopted in the Full-cost Accounting for Electricity Generation study (click on image to enlarge).
Outputs
- Low-Impact Renewable Energy Policy in Canada: Strengths, Gaps and a Path Forward
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- Low-impact renewable energy (LIRE) is a category of energy sources including wind, sun, biomass and moving water that can provide a large proportion of Canada's energy needs. Paper now available.
This paper explores the implementation of LIRE in Canada, reviews the Canadian policy framework and proposes changes. It complements the full-cost accounting work (discussed below), which quantifies the externality costs of fossil based electricity, which LIRE sources do not impose. Thus the full-cost calculations provide some of the economic argument for encouraging LIRE sources through policy initiatives.
The LIRE paper was drafted by a team from the Pembina Institute for Appropriate Development, which was a partner in the TERI-Canada project.
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