A great article on the May 19 Globe and Mail analyzing how the BC Carbon Tax “’survived” the recent BC provincial election while Stéphane Dion Carbon Shift didn’t. Stewart Elgie, David Boyd, and Chris Waddell , three Law, Economics, and Journalism professors in Ottawa, have come up with six reasons:
- Do not make Carbon Tax as the main issue for the election campaign (that’s what Dion and James did)
- carbon tax is very important, but there are more important political issues
- Keep it simple (not many understand the BC carbon tax; no one understands Dion’s carbon shift)
- Timing is important (Dion brought up the carbon shift when oil is at record price; oil price was 1/3 of the height during the recent BC election)
- Good communication! (Dion couldn’t get his point across; James couldn’t come up with solid carbon policy for her party)
- Deep pocket (Dion had less marketing budget than Harper; James had less marketing budget than Campbell)
- Best policy may not win! (Dion lost on a better policy; yet Campbell won with a better policy) - yes, the Carbon Tax is one of the best policies!!
Here’s one of the best quote about why Carbon Tax should not be the centre of the election campaign:
“If you are a travel company trying to sell a tropical vacation, you emphasize the beach, not the flight.”
- by Angus McAllister
This is it!! We want a sustainable/low carbon future; let’s emphasize on the ends, and let’s work together to get there - through carbon tax, renewable energy investment, energy conservation, or whatever the means might be!
Michael Ignatieff officially became the leader of the federal Liberal Party of Canada; he also officially erased Liberal’s connection to the carbon tax issue, formally known as the Green Shift when Stéphane Dion was the leader. In today’s sparring with Stephen Harper (Prime Minister and Conservative Party leader of Canada), as reported on the Globe and Mail, Ignatieff said:
“I made it very clear in a press conference on Sunday that we do not propose to go into the next election with a carbon tax, period. Is that clear? I sure hope it is.”
- Michael Ignatieff, leader of Liberal Party of Canada
I guess since the Green Shift made the Liberal party quite unpopular in Canada, there are good reasons to brush off the carbon tax. Especially since the US is very keen on a cap-and-trade system. I’m not clear what’s Ignatieff’s new policy on the environment, but there is no doubt that carbon is going to have a price tag. I’ll stay in tune to see what he does in the near future, because it’s too early to judge….
As much as we’re up in the “north”, Canadians really do care about what the US is planning in all areas of policy, including carbon! Whether we follow US policy or develop our own set of policies is another matter, but whatever the Obama administration has/will have implement can affect us greatly. This is a pretty good article summarizing what Obama has done in his first 100 days in the office. I’ve extracted the summary section of it:
I guess these initiatives are great, but haven’t really get down to the carbon business. Carbon Tax? Cap and Trade? Hybrid? It’s interesting to see what’s going to happen!
Sustainability Prosperity, a not for profit organization providing research, policy proposals, and educational information on environmental pricing reform, has recently published a report on “Eight principles for pricing carbon“. According to the website, these eight principles are:
- Comprehensive: across all sources and sizes of emissions with no exemptions
- Nation-wide: a federal framework is needed to establish a minimum carbon price across the country.
- Simple and readily implemented: avoiding complex rules and exemptions, and with a short lead time to come into effect.
- Transparent and accountable: to ensure its integrity, any new policy must be accompanied by a clear analysis of its expected economic and environmental effects, including a clear accounting of amount and use of any revenues raised.
- Complemented by other measures such as improving the efficiency of vehicles, homes and appliances, and promoting technology research and development where a price signal alone is insufficient.
- Environmentally effective in meeting the jurisdiction’s medium and long-term emissions reduction targets
- Ultimately comparable to carbon prices in other countries
- Predictable but adaptable to provide investment certainty but respond to changing scientific knowledge, international agreements, or unanticipated emissions reduction responses.
I haven’t read through
the report in detail but what’s interesting is that they have applied the eight principles to current policies in Canada. The results? They concluded that BC’s current carbon tax system is the best policy in Canada; you can read the scorecard of policies in Canada
here. Well we know there are a lot more work to do to get the carbon system right and operational (tax plus cap and trade), but it’s encouraging to see that BC is ahead in the game!
This is an article on
Globe and Mail which includes interviews with
Stephanie Cairns, director of carbon pricing for Sustainable Prosperity. Although the current report did not rate BC NDP party’s cap-and-trade system, she commented that:
“There’s very little detail in what they released… [but] our score card would rate this as the weakest policy in Canada.”
Ms. Cairns said the NDP plan, to axe the Liberal carbon tax and replace it with a cap-and-trade system, would apply to only about 32 per cent of emissions in the province.
She said a cap-and-trade system, without a tax, could be effective, but it would have to apply far more widely than the NDP has proposed.
“They need to address the other 68 per cent of emissions,” Ms. Cairns said.
And she said the NDP plan, to get rid of the tax and then develop the details of the cap-and-trade policy later, would be destabilizing to business.
I will report again after reading the eight principles in detail and share some thoughts. If you have read it, what are your thoughts??
This is old - so old that these cheerleaders no longer actively cheer for the carbon tax as the liberal leader in Canada. But I still find it ammusing =p. I met Stéphane Dion when he was promoting the Green Shift in Kingston, Ontario. Hope you enjoy it =)
BC Carbon Tax, BC Election, Green Tag Line | flo | 
May 20, 2009 12:01 am | 
Comments (1) 
Subscribe