Authors: Dr. Roger Gibbins & Dr. Kari Roberts
The wide-ranging Canadian policy debate on climate change will prompt a parallel and complementary national discussion of energy strategies, for climate change policies necessarily affect the production and consumption of energy. Given the importance of energy resources to the western Canadian economy, it is essential that western Canadians lead rather than follow this national energy discussion, that they help frame it in ways that reflect western Canadian experience, interests and aspirations.
This paper, we hope, provides a constructive catalyst for this national discussion by sketching in a principled framework for Canadian energy policies within a carbon-constrained world. The ten principles that we have identified are:
Align energy policies with climate change policies;
Focus energy policies on energy issues;
Share the load;
Get the policy scale right;
Maximize the role of markets;
Recognize the need for public investment;
Acknowledge continental realities;
Strengthen our competitive position in the global economy;
Be realistic and practical;
Be bold.
These principles lead us to conclude that a degree of policy coordination at the national level may indeed be necessary. If the above goals are to be achieved, then provincial, territorial, federal and municipal policies need to be integrated. After all, if Canada hopes to address the global challenge of climate change it is an effort that requires a coordinated response.