The Canadian Institute for Climate Choices was commissioned by Environment and Climate Change Canada to undertake an assessment of carbon pricing in Canada. The resulting report, The State of Carbon Pricing in Canada was released in June along with an accompanying detailed technical report, 2020 Expert Assessment of Carbon Pricing Systems. Focusing on the design of carbon pricing systems across all jurisdictions (and not measuring performance), the authors identify five key challenges: Not all policies apply to the same emissions; Not all policies have the same price; Not all policies impose the same costs on industry; Almost all policies lack transparency about key design choices and outcomes; and Long-term and transparent price signals are typically absent from programs.
Their recommendations for improvement are:
- Develop a common standard of emissions coverage for carbon pricing across all jurisdictions.
- Remove point-of-sale rebates that are tied to fuel consumption: such rebates should be replaced with other approaches such as direct rebates, income tax reductions, or abatement technology subsidies.
- Define a “glide-path” to better align and increase average costs to large emitters
- Engage Indigenous people in carbon pricing – at present, some communities are exempt and some are subject to full carbon costs
- Ensure continuous improvement through more transparency and more independent evaluation.
A related blog, “3 Maps That Show Why Carbon Pricing in Canada Needs a Tune-Up” summarizes the differences in carbon pricing design choices across the country, in a less formal style.
