At the 2015 Canadian Association of Environmental Law Societies Conference held at the University of Calgary last week, I presented a brief overview of global, Canadian and provincial developments in carbon pricing and greenhouse gas reduction policies.  One of the questions I sought to address was whether Canada can be expected to have a strong, ambitious national carbon pricing policy in time for the Paris climate change conference in December 2015.

Indeed, the Paris climate change conference has been touted as the “world’s last best chance to reach an agreement on cutting carbon emissions.”  As successor to the Kyoto Protocol, the international climate change treaty that emerges from Paris will consolidate all the Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) of more than 190 developed and developing countries.  The INDCs are countries’ plans that articulate their greenhouse gas (GHGs) reduction targets and how these will be achieved, including the possible use of market-based mechanisms such as emissions trading and carbon taxes.

Read more on the ELC blog.