Developing a Climate Change Mitigation Policy Inventory for Canada

Abstract

Across orders of governments, jurisdictions are continually expanding their implementation of policies to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and mitigate the impacts of climate change. In federations such as Canada, the mix of policies used is further complicated by overlapping regulation both within and across federal and provincial or territorial governments. Canada's climate policy landscape is marked by variation in timing, effort, and approach and driven by differences among provinces and territories in economic structures, political ideologies, energy resources, and emissions. However, a clear picture of the wide-ranging efforts undertaken across jurisdictions remains unavailable. To address this gap, we have developed a comprehensive and dynamic inventory of climate policies in Canada. This article outlines the steps taken to establish the inventory of 341 climate policies in Canada, the coding protocol used to assess policy design elements, and a description of the inventory findings. By shedding light on the complex web of climate policies in Canada, this inventory aims to provide researchers and policy-makers with a clear picture of the ongoing efforts to reduce GHG emissions. It also seeks to inform future research on the impacts of and interactions among policy tools in achieving a range of societal objectives.