Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne’s announcement about a cap-and-trade system comes at a good time. This year is a turning point in the global effort on climate change. International negotiations have picked up momentum since 2012, and a global climate agreement is expected to be sealed at the end of this year in Paris.
Public debates on cap-and-trade in Canada focus exclusively on the promise and challenges of a carbon pricing system to achieve one particular result: reduction of overall emissions. How successful Ontario’s cap-and-trade system will be depends on its design. This focus, however, overshadows the bigger picture questions. [read more…]