Estimating the Effect of the Canadian Government's 2006-2007 Greenhouse Gas Policies

Mounting public concern about climate change has prompted the Canadian government to respond with a major policy effort to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Since early 2006, the Conservative government has launched a series of initiatives under its “ecoACTION” banner, culminating in the release in April 2007 of its “regulatory framework for air emissions,” which is currently under consultative review.economic growth, economic innovation

Taxing Emissions, Not Income: How to Moderate the Regional Impact of Federal Environment Policy

Canadian policymakers have the policy tools needed to ameliorate the regional economic harm that taxing GHG emissions can cause. A price on GHG emissions will affect Canadian provinces differently, possibly undermining support for a policy that incurs regional transfers of income. The authors recommend returning to the provinces the revenues collected through auctioned emissions permits, so that they may offer personal and corporate income tax relief, all to moderate the regional impact of GHG carbon policy. Allowing provinces to retain the revenues collected from auctioned emissions permits would achieve a greater degree of regional equity than the other policy options.Economic Growth and Innovation, GHG emissions, GHG carbon policy. Canadian federal policy, regional impacts of climate policy

Building robust, practicable counterfactuals and scenarios to evaluate the impact of species conservation interventions using inferential approaches

Robust evaluation of the impact of biodiversity conservation actions is important not only for ensuring that conservation strategies are effective and maximise return on investment, but also to identify and celebrate successful conservation strategies. This evaluation can be retrospective (comparing the current situation to a counterfactual scenario) or forward-looking (comparing future scenarios with or without conservation). However, assessment of impact using experimental or quasi-experimental designs is typically difficult in conservation, so rigorous inferential approaches are required. Inferential assessment of impact is a key part of the new IUCN Green Status of Species, which greatly amplifies the need for standardised and practical species impact evaluation methods. Here, we use the Green Status of Species method as a base to review how inferential methods can be used to evaluate conservation impact at the species level. We identify three key components of the inferential impact evaluation process—estimation of scenario outcomes, selection of baseline scenario, and frame of reference—and explain, with examples, how to reduce the subjectivity of these steps. We propose a step-by-step guide, incorporating these principles, that can be used to infer scenario outcomes in order to evaluate past and future conservation impact in a wide range of situations, not just Green Status of Species assessments. We recommend that future non-experimental conservation interventions facilitate the process of evaluating impact by identifying the variable(s) that will be used to measure impact at the design stage, and by using conceptual models to help choose conservation actions most likely to have the desired impact

State of the world’s plants and fungi 2020

Kew’s State of the World’s Plants and Fungi project provides assessments of our current knowledge of the diversity of plants and fungi on Earth, the global threats that they face, and the policies to safeguard them. Produced in conjunction with an international scientific symposium, Kew’s State of the World’s Plants and Fungi sets an important international standard from which we can annually track trends in the global status of plant and fungal diversity

Testing a global standard for quantifying species recovery and assessing conservation impact.

Recognizing the imperative to evaluate species recovery and conservation impact, in 2012 the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) called for development of a "Green List of Species" (now the IUCN Green Status of Species). A draft Green Status framework for assessing species' progress toward recovery, published in 2018, proposed 2 separate but interlinked components: a standardized method (i.e., measurement against benchmarks of species' viability, functionality, and preimpact distribution) to determine current species recovery status (herein species recovery score) and application of that method to estimate past and potential future impacts of conservation based on 4 metrics (conservation legacy, conservation dependence, conservation gain, and recovery potential). We tested the framework with 181 species representing diverse taxa, life histories, biomes, and IUCN Red List categories (extinction risk). Based on the observed distribution of species' recovery scores, we propose the following species recovery categories: fully recovered, slightly depleted, moderately depleted, largely depleted, critically depleted, extinct in the wild, and indeterminate. Fifty-nine percent of tested species were considered largely or critically depleted. Although there was a negative relationship between extinction risk and species recovery score, variation was considerable. Some species in lower risk categories were assessed as farther from recovery than those at higher risk. This emphasizes that species recovery is conceptually different from extinction risk and reinforces the utility of the IUCN Green Status of Species to more fully understand species conservation status. Although extinction risk did not predict conservation legacy, conservation dependence, or conservation gain, it was positively correlated with recovery potential. Only 1.7% of tested species were categorized as zero across all 4 of these conservation impact metrics, indicating that conservation has, or will, play a role in improving or maintaining species status for the vast majority of these species. Based on our results, we devised an updated assessment framework that introduces the option of using a dynamic baseline to assess future impacts of conservation over the short term to avoid misleading results which were generated in a small number of cases, and redefines short term as 10 years to better align with conservation planning. These changes are reflected in the IUCN Green Status of Species Standard

Do species conservation assessments capture genetic diversity?

This work was supported by the Natural Environment Research Council NER/S/A/2006/14303 (MR) and the Leverhulme Trust RF/2/RFG/2007/0314 (TM).The best known system for classifying threat status of species, the IUCN Red List, currently lacks explicit considerations of genetic diversity, and consequently may not account for potential adaptation of species to future environmental change. To address this gap, we integrate range-wide genetic analysis with IUCN Red List assessments. We calculated the loss of genetic diversity under simulated range loss for species of Delonix (Leguminosae). Simulated range loss involved random loss of populations and was intended to model ongoing habitat destruction. We found a strong relationship between loss of genetic diversity and range. Moreover, we found correspondence between levels of genetic diversity and thresholds for ‘non-threatened’ versus ‘threatened’ IUCN Red List categories. Our results support the view that current threat thresholds of the IUCN Red List criteria reflect genetic diversity, and hence evolutionary potential; although the genetic diversity distinction between threatened categories was less evident. Thus, by supplementing conventional conservation assessments with genetic data, new insights into the biological robustness of IUCN Red List assessments for targeted conservation initiatives can be achievedPublisher PDFPeer reviewe

Impacts of climate policy on the competitiveness of Canadian industry: How big and how to mitigate?

Competitiveness concerns have been at the forefront of climate policy debates in Canada particularly as a result of its high energy intensity and significant exposure to international markets. This paper uses a dynamic computable general equilibrium model to assess the likely impacts on sectoral competitiveness that would accompany efforts to meet greenhouse gas mitigation targets that have been set by the Canadian government. Additionally, it evaluates several design mechanisms that could be used to reduce the negative competiveness impacts associated with adoption of domestic climate policies. The analysis suggests that several sectors would likely face significant competiveness challenges under a reference scenario in which permits are given to emitters in lump sum. However, it finds that competiveness impacts can be minimized by using output-based recycling of permits, or by using border tax adjustments.Climate change Competitiveness Border tax

Canada's efforts towards greenhouse gas emission reduction: a case study on the limits of voluntary action and subsidies

Canada has committed internationally to several agreements to limit climate change, most recently by ratifying the Kyoto Protocol in 2002. However, its domestic climate change policy is not reflective of these international commitments. In particular, federal government climate change policy over the last decade has emphasised noncompulsory policies such as voluntarism, information provision, and modest subsidies. These policies are designed primarily to engender minimal political resistance, and have been relatively ineffective in providing the incentives and regulatory structure for the dramatic technological and behavioural change required for significant greenhouse gas emissions reductions. Without a major change in direction towards more compulsory policies, it seems unlikely that Canada will achieve significant domestic greenhouse gas reductions over and beyond the Kyoto Protocol time frame. We suggest a more compulsory policy approach dominated by market-oriented regulations. When designed appropriately, this type of policy stimulates the development and commercialisation of new technologies without dramatically affecting prices of energy or goods.Canada; climate change; voluntary action; energy policy; greenhouse gas emissions; subsidies; emission reduction; technology commercialisation; technology development; compulsory policy; voluntary policy; market-oriented regulations.