Climate and transportation policy sequencing in California and Quebec

Abstract

We compare flexible low‐carbon regulations in the transportation sector and their interaction and sequencing with greenhouse gas emissions trading systems in California and Quebec. As momentum builds for greater climate action, it is necessary to better understand how carbon markets and other low‐carbon transportation policies influence one another. First, we demonstrate that emissions trading between California and Quebec has been asymmetric, with linking having little influence on carbon prices from California's perspective but leading to a considerable cost reduction from the point of view of Quebec. Second, we present evidence that Quebec has replicated many of California's low‐carbon transportation policies that promote increased electric vehicle use, where Quebec has an advantage, while deferring to the Canadian federal government with regard to policies that incentivize the production of other low‐carbon transportation fuels. Third, we demonstrate that while the stringency of the policy mix of carbon pricing and flexible transportation regulations has increased over time in both jurisdictions, the stringency of flexible regulations has been more aggressively ratcheted up and is expected to continue to dominate. Overall, our findings suggest that the policy sequence observed in California and Quebec can be attributed to the political economy benefits that the selected instruments confer to governments seeking to move from the middle towards the bottom of the clean technology experience curve. We discuss a number of important research questions and associated hypotheses emanating from our findings, which provide the basis for more in‐depth studies involving a larger universe of cases and economic sectors.

The challenges of freight transport in cities

“…California policies include a broad carbon cap and trade system, specific targets for achieving a zero-emissions truck fleet, regulations to reduce carbon in existing fuels, regulations requiring ocean carriers to run on electricity while in port, and regulations being planned to achieve zero-emission cargo handling equipment at ports. 5 In addition, California is funding research and development on battery and hydrogen-fuel-cellpowered locomotives. Efforts to reduce GHG emissions throughout the economy will surely accelerate change in the freight sector.…”

Research on the national climate governance system toward carbon neutrality—A critical literature review

“…The main theories and methods here include advocacy collation [104] and policy feedback [105] . One of the critical arguments of this strand of research is that the constraints and obstacles faced by different climate policies in the implementation process can be arranged through a policy sequence, where each phase of the policy contributes to the implementation of subsequent, more stringent policies [ 106 , 107 ]. The second category regards climate governance as a transition of the whole society.…”

Canadian Public Policy: The State of the Discipline

“…Municipal policies subject to comparison are fewer and include housing (Doberstein, 2016), environmental and climate change (Schwartz, 2016(Schwartz, , 2019Johns, 2019) and emergency management (Henstra, 2013). 5 See comparative studies of pharmacare (Boothe, 2015), family and ECEC policy (Mahon et al, 2012(Mahon et al, , 2016White, 2012White, , 2017, health care (Béland and Waddan, 2019;Tuohy, 2018Tuohy, , 2019, pensions (Béland and Weaver, 2019;Jacobs, 2011), climate policy (Harrison, 2020;Houle et al, 2015;Jones, 2014;Karapin, 2020;Purdon et al, 2021) and endangered species protection (Olive, 2014).…”

“…5See comparative studies of pharmacare (Boothe, 2015), family and ECEC policy (Mahon et al, 2012, 2016; White, 2012, 2017), health care (Béland and Waddan, 2019; Tuohy, 2018, 2019), pensions (Béland and Weaver, 2019; Jacobs, 2011), climate policy (Harrison, 2020; Houle et al, 2015; Jones, 2014; Karapin, 2020; Purdon et al, 2021) and endangered species protection (Olive, 2014). …”