Canada is preparing to introduce a carbon border adjustment measure whose contours are not yet known.
Winnipeg—Canada has released a long-awaited update to its Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC), demonstrating greater climate ambition and representing an important step forward as the nation seeks to meet targets outlined in the Paris Agreement.
The International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) welcomes the commitment in the NDC to advancing gender equality, social inclusion, and Indigenous reconciliation through climate action in Canada and abroad. The application of comprehensive, participatory Gender-Based Analysis Plus (GBA+) through the design, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of all climate policies and programs is essential. This provides a foundation for ensuring equitable benefits from investments in climate action for people of all genders and social groups, including Indigenous Peoples, racialized Canadians, youth, and 2SLGBTQQIA+ people.
Alongside an updated NDC, Canada also submitted its first Adaptation Communication yesterday, which affirms Canada’s commitment to developing a National Adaptation Strategy and emphasizes the growing value of nature-based solutions. This is noteworthy progress that should not be overlooked, especially as people across the country are already suffering from the impacts of climate change.
When it comes to what Canada will do to mitigate global warming, however, its new NDC falls short:
As the 26th Conference of the Parties (COP 26) approaches, pressure is quickly escalating for developed countries to ramp up their ambitions on climate—not with broad brushstrokes but with detailed plans, aggressive timelines, and scaled-up financing on all fronts. Canada cannot afford to fall behind. Its updated NDC is promising, but greater commitments must be forthcoming in the months ahead.
Toronto/Winnipeg—With the European Commission set to announce a new border carbon adjustment (BCA) regime for the European Union (EU) tomorrow, now is the time for Canada to figure out how to reconcile its climate ambition with the need to protect the competitiveness of domestic industry and prevent carbon leakage.
That’s one of the urgent messages in Enabling Climate Ambition: Border Carbon Adjustment in Canada and Abroad, released today by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) and Clean Prosperity.
The new report is the first to examine in detail the kinds of questions that Canada will have to answer as it designs a BCA regime. In particular, it looks at how Canada might harmonize its border carbon charges with top trading partners that are also ambitious about tackling climate change, such as the United States and the EU.
BCAs are charges applied to the embedded carbon emissions in imported goods, especially imports from countries with less stringent climate policies.
"Canada will not achieve its climate ambition if our policies just end up shifting emissions from domestic firms to their foreign competitors," says Aaron Cosbey, co-author of the report and Senior Associate with IISD. "There’s no way around it: BCAs are challenging to get right, and they're no silver bullet. But it's hard to see how we can successfully decarbonize without them."
"The problem we need to confront is that not every country is as ambitious as Canada when it comes to climate action," says Clean Prosperity Executive Director and report co-author Michael Bernstein. "BCAs are one solution to that problem. They complement strong Canadian climate policy by keeping industry on a level playing field with foreign competitors while continuing to incentivize decarbonization."
Read the full report to learn more.
For more information: [email protected]
The federal government is inviting the City of Vancouver to apply for up to $20 million in funding for natural infrastructure projects to support the city’s strategy to capture and clean rainfall with natural solutions.
Canada’s ambitious climate policies are necessary to get us to net-zero by 2050, but if other countries don’t take similar actions, it will mean trouble for Canadian sectors such as steel, cement, fertilizers, and chemicals, whose emissions might simply be transferred to unregulated foreign competitors. Like other countries that are now working to implement protections, Canada needs to think about tools like border carbon adjustment (BCA) that aim to impose a carbon price on imports.
With Canada’s carbon price legislated to rise to CAD 170/tonne by 2030, we urgently need to design protections to ensure that our energy-intensive trade-exposed sectors achieve real emissions reductions, as opposed to seeing emissions simply transferred to unregulated foreign competitors.
Border carbon adjustment (BCA) will be a reality in the European Union (where it’s known as CBAM) by 2023, and the United States and United Kingdom intend to adopt similar systems. Any country with climate ambition will need to seriously consider following suit.
But BCA is devilishly complex, politically explosive, potentially illegal under trade rules, and would have to be adapted to Canada’s unique climate pricing regime. It’s imperative to start thinking in depth about how to get it right.
As climate ambition ramps up in Canada and around the world, one of the key challenges governments face is how to impose meaningful carbon prices on domestic industries when not all trading partners are similarly ambitious. In countries that are pursuing ambitious climate policies, there has been increasing interest in an instrument that could help enable that ambition: border carbon adjustment (BCA). BCA aims to ensure that imports face the same carbon price faced by domestic producers.
But BCA is devilishly complex, politically explosive, potentially illegal under trade rules, and would have to be adapted to Canada’s unique climate pricing regime. So Canadian policy-makers need to start thinking now about what such a regime might look like here.
This report surveys eight design elements and makes specific recommendations for the shape of a Canadian BCA. The report also explores how Canada should react to emerging BCA schemes in major trading partners such as the EU and United States, and how its own scheme might accommodate climate policies in those countries.
The Lower Winnipeg River Basin (LWRB) is where the Canadian Prairies meet the Boreal Forest.
Carrying 50% of the annual flow to Lake Winnipeg, the Winnipeg River snakes through northwestern Ontario, draining Lake of the Woods before reaching Manitoba’s oldest hydroelectric dams, a decommissioned nuclear facility, and thousands of vacation properties. A history of forestry, transportation, mining, and recreation has left a mark on the land and water in this basin.
Did you know that:
This presents a unique opportunity to pilot more effective management practices and approaches. IISD has compiled data and information on this section of the basin and is exploring how innovative technologies and Traditional Knowledge can work together to preserve and enhance the health of the water—and the prosperity of the communities on the shorelines.
*Lower Winnipeg River Basin Discussion Sheet Series*
The series below explores multiple aspects of the basin to encourage discussion with experts, government departments, Indigenous groups, and stakeholders.
The series was published in May 2021 and is based on available data collected in 2018 and 2019.
This Discussion Sheet Series highlights research on ecological and socio-economic aspects of the lower Winnipeg River Basin to encourage discussion with experts, government departments, Indigenous groups, and stakeholders.
This Discussion Sheet Series highlights research on ecological and socio-economic aspects of the lower Winnipeg River basin to encourage discussion with experts, government departments, Indigenous groups, and stakeholders.
This Discussion Sheet Series highlights research on ecological and socio-economic aspects of the lower Winnipeg River Basin to encourage discussion with experts, government departments, Indigenous groups, and stakeholders.
This Discussion Sheet Series highlights research on ecological and socio-economic aspects of the lower Winnipeg River basin to encourage discussion with experts, government departments, Indigenous groups, and stakeholders.
This Discussion Sheet Series highlights research on ecological and socio-economic aspects of the lower Winnipeg River basin to encourage discussion with experts, government departments, Indigenous groups, and stakeholders.
This Discussion Sheet Series highlights research on ecological and socio-economic aspects of the lower Winnipeg River basin to encourage discussion with experts, government departments, Indigenous groups, and stakeholders.
This Discussion Sheet Series highlights research on ecological and socio-economic aspects of the lower Winnipeg River basin to encourage discussion with experts, government departments, Indigenous groups, and stakeholders.
This Discussion Sheet Series highlights research on ecological and socio-economic aspects of the lower Winnipeg River basin to encourage discussion with experts, government departments, Indigenous groups, and stakeholders.
This Discussion Sheet Series highlights research on ecological and socio-economic aspects of the lower Winnipeg River basin to encourage discussion with experts, government departments, Indigenous groups, and stakeholders.
This Discussion Sheet Series highlights research on ecological and socio-economic aspects of the lower Winnipeg River basin to encourage discussion with experts, government departments, Indigenous groups, and stakeholders.
This Discussion Sheet Series highlights research on ecological and socio-economic aspects of the lower Winnipeg River basin to encourage discussion with experts, government departments, Indigenous groups, and stakeholders.
Investing in natural infrastructure like the Park Rill Floodplain will be key to building climate resilience in Canada, according to a new report by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) released Monday.
Canada should act fast to protect critical infrastructure from climate breakdown by building resilience into ports, power grids, bridges, and more, the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) says.
A review of literature to inform the way forward
Canada's climate is changing, bringing new risks for its roads, buildings, water pipes, ports, and transmission lines. As past climate parameters can no longer be relied on when making decisions related to the design, construction, and maintenance of new and existing infrastructure, new approaches are needed. An integrated, whole-of-society approach—bringing together all orders of government, sectors, and civil society—is required to increase the climate resilience of the infrastructure supporting Canadian communities.
Greater effort and investment are needed if Canada's ageing infrastructure is to keep up with accelerating climate change and close an infrastructure deficit already estimated to be between CAD 150 billion and CAD 1 trillion.
Natural infrastructure is becoming a mainstream, cost-effective option for enhancing the resilience of Canada's built infrastructure while also providing communities with other important benefits.
A diverse range of strategies, policies, guides, standards, codes, and financing programs have emerged in Canada and internationally to help inform efforts to increase the climate resilience of built infrastructure.
The report Advancing the Climate Resilience of Canadian Infrastructure: A review of literature to inform the way forward is intended to inform and create awareness of an integrated, whole-of-society approach to making infrastructure across Canada resilient to a changing climate. Written for infrastructure owners, designers, builders, operators, investors, policy-makers, and stakeholders, it provides a snapshot of the range of action taking place in Canada and internationally to increase the climate resilience of infrastructure.
The report compiles available information on the impacts and risks of climate change for Canada’s infrastructure from a regional perspective and for six types of built infrastructure. Illustrative examples of current technical solutions to addressing these risks are presented. In addition, it summarizes the range of natural infrastructure solutions that are available to enhance the resilience of communities to climate change. To better understand actions being taken to improve the climate resilience of Canadian infrastructure, the report synthesizes a range of current policies, guidelines, and financing being implemented federally and internationally to inform and incentivize climate-resilient infrastructure.
Natural infrastructure can provide protection against a range of climate change hazards, such as coastal flooding, riverine flooding, extreme heat in urban areas, and drought, as well as generate co-benefits such as species habitat and recreational opportunities.
Natural infrastructure uses existing, restored, or enhanced ecosystems to generate infrastructure outcomes either on its own or in combination with built infrastructure.
