Author: Dr. Kari Roberts
This report outlines notable public policy efforts in select jurisdictions in Canada and the United States to address the challenge of climate change. Given the inseparability of climate change policy and energy policy, this report acknowledges innovations in pursuit of sustainable communities through public policy centering on energy conservation and emissions reduction. The report reveals that, from smaller cities like Winnipeg, Manitoba to the much larger State of California, jurisdictions across North America are working to find solutions to the shared problem of climate change.
Naturally, different jurisdictions have different levels of emissions and varying resources at their disposal to address them. This report examines jurisdictions that are known for their wide basket of approaches to addressing climate change as well as those that have implemented specific but innovative policy tools for achieving their greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets.
The Canadian jurisdictions examined in this report are:
Winnipeg, Manitoba;
Quebec; and
Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island.
The American jurisdictions identified are:
Boulder, Colorado;
St. Paul, Minnesota;
Seattle, Washington;
Portland, Oregon; and
California.
Some jurisdictions across Canada and the US (including some that are discussed in this report) are involved in regional organizations that support collective efforts to reduce GHG emissions and are looking into formal arrangements for advancing this goal (e.g., setting up trading regimes).
Two examples of this are briefly outlined in this report:
the Western Climate Initiative (WCI); and
the New England Governors/Eastern Canadian Premiers (NEG/ECP) Group.
An inventory of current federal and provincial government energy policies aimed at addressing climate change can be found in the Canada West Foundation report Building On Our Strengths: An Inventory of Current Federal, Provincial, and Territorial Climate Change Policies.