A Methodological Roadmap to Determine the Effectiveness of Carbon Policies

Abstract

In the struggle to combat climate change carbon policies have been presented as an efficient and effective method for reducing GHG emissions while minimizing economic impacts. Policy implementation worldwide has grown considerably over the past decade with an ever-growing percentage of global emissions being covered by different forms of carbon policies. There is however a low quantity of evidence-based literature on the effectiveness of the carbon pricing models currently in place. I document a statistical, econometric modeling technique developed and used by the Canadian Energy Research Institute (CERI), to evaluate the Environmental Effectiveness of different Carbon Policies worldwide. A case study using the methodology to evaluate the effectiveness of the British Columbia Carbon tax is presented showing it to be ineffective at increasing emissions effectiveness while having a positive impact on economic growth.