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La politique canadienne en matière de changements climatiques et l'influence nord-américaine
Abstract
Cet article porte sur l’influence du contexte nord-américain sur la politique canadienne relative aux changements climatiques à l’aide de trois indicateurs : les actions ou les déclarations qui expriment la volonté des gouvernements canadiens de mettre en oeuvre une coopération transfrontalière en matière de politique climatique, les actions ou les déclarations d’acteurs privés qui ont pour but de demander aux gouvernements du Canada d’harmoniser leurs politiques avec celles des États-Unis, et le degré de convergence des politiques des deux pays. Les auteurs en concluent qu’au Canada, le contexte nord-américain a considérablement influencé les politiques relatives aux changements climatiques aux échelons fédéral, provincial et intergouvernemental (fédéral-provincial), bien que cette influence se soit exercée d’une manière différente aux niveaux intergouvernemental et infranational et que des facteurs politiques, économiques et institutionnels intérieurs soient intervenus.
... Ainsi, ces nouveaux engagements ne tiennent pas compte de l'accroissement des émissions depuis 1990. Enfin, le plan d'action vise également des cibles de réduction en termes d'intensité plutôt que des réductions absolues et atténue considérablement l'ambition canadienne à l'égard de cet enjeu (Harrison 2007, Macdonald et Vannijnatten 2010. ...
... Or, dès l'arrivée des Conservateurs au pouvoir, cette image a été mise à mal. Dans les Conférences des Parties qui suivent, la position canadienne évolue considérablement, et celui-ci adopte un discours idéologique beaucoup plus proche de celui des É tats-Unis (Macdonald et Vannijnatten 2010) et agit en obstruction au processus de négociation onusien 7 (Ott et al. 2008, Smith 2009a. Pour Smith, c'est là où la rupture dans la politique étrangère des Conservateurs devient évidente : ...
En décembre 2011, le Canada devenait le premier pays à se retirer formellement du Protocole de Kyoto. Par ce retrait, le gouvernement canadien tournait la page à plus de deux décennies de négociations multilatérales où le Canada avait pourtant joué un rôle significatif dans l’édification du régime climatique international. Cette évolution rapide pousse nombre d'observateurs à affirmer que le renversement observé dans la politique étrangère se situe avec l'arrivée des Conservateurs. Mais qu'en est-il vraiment ? Alors que les émissions de GES ont augmenté de façon continuelle entre 1990 et 2012, peut-on véritablement parler de rupture dans la politique étrangère climatique canadienne avec l'arrivée au pouvoir des Conservateurs ? L'objectif de cet article est de présenter cette évolution dans la politique étrangère canadienne entre 1988 et 2012 en offrant une analyse des éléments de continuité et de rupture dans la politique étrangère canadienne à l’égard des changements climatiques au cours de cette période.
This article sheds light on the complexity of international climate change negotiations in a federal country, like Canada, where there is no clear attribution of full power over international negotiation concerning this issue. Climate change is a multi-level and multi-stakeholder issue, one that can only be tackled successfully if all actors, at all levels of government, are involved in the process. In recent years, Canadian provinces, especially Québec, have become intensely involved in climate change paradiplomacy. That situation has led to a Canadian paradox where the Government of Québec worked to respect the Kyoto Protocol and act accordingly, while Canada opted out of the Protocol in 2011.
Focusing on social and environmental policy, this paper examines the hypothesis that policy convergence generated by continental economic integration will be greater among specific pairs of tightly‐linked American states and Canadian provinces than is evident in national‐level comparisons. First, the paper outlines a number of important reasons to expect that provincial governments in Canada are more susceptible than the federal government to pressures for cross‐border policy convergence. Second, the paper outlines a methodology for identifying tightly‐linked pairs of American states and Canadian provinces based on various measures of geographical proximity and levels of state‐province economic integration. Finally, the paper examines patterns of similarity and difference over time in matching state‐province pairs with respect to specific aspects of social policy (levels of social protection and income redistribution) and environmental policy (pollution abatement and control). In terms of these indicators, national patterns of convergence/divergence are not fundamentally challenged by sub‐national patterns of convergence and divergence. At the same time, patterns of similarity and difference over time for various subsets of matching state and province pairs generally differ in degree, if not in direction, from national‐level patterns. However, after 1995, there are some indications of a pattern that fits with the contention that convergence may be occurring at the state‐province level which is not evident in national‐level patterns.
The authors use a comparative politics framework, examining electoral interests, policy-maker's own normative commitments, and domestic political institutions as factors influencing Annex 1 countries' decisions on Kyoto Protocol ratification and adoption of national policies to mitigate climate change. Economic costs and electoral interests matter a great deal, even when policy-makers are morally motivated to take action on climate change. Leaders' normative commitments may carry the day under centralized institutional conditions, but these commitments can be reversed when leaders change. Electoral systems, federalism, and executive-legislative institutional configurations all influence ratification decisions and subsequent policy adoption. Although institutional configurations may facilitate or hinder government action, high levels of voter concern can trump institutional obstacles. Governments' decisions to ratify, and the reduction targets they face upon ratification, do not necessarily determine their approach to carbon emissions abatement policies: for example, ratifying countries that accept demanding targets may fail to take significant action. (c) 2007 by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
The Canadian government indicated recently that it will not meet its Kyoto targets but will develop a "made in Canada" solution to deal with the reduction of climate-changing greenhouse gas emissions. Canada is still legally obligated to achieve its Kyoto reduction requirements and has indicated that it will participate in the second round of Kyoto Protocol talks. However, as a co-signatory of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), Canada may be impeded from introducing and maintaining greenhouse gas-reducing initiatives as there are elements of NAFTA which may be used to challenge or block efforts that are considered discriminatory to trade. In particular, Chapter 11 may be used as a vessel by private investors to challenge climate change measures that conflict with other NAFTA chapters. Unless these conflicts are addressed, the Canadian government will fail in its initiatives.
This chapter focuses on the struggle between ideas and self-interest in Canadian climate policy. It seeks to explain Canada’s decision to ratify the Kyoto Protocol despite anticipation of significant costs and its failure to adopt effective climate-change policies. The chapter discusses the domestic variables that influence policymakers’ decisions including electoral incentives, political institutions, and policymakers’ own ideals. Both the Prime Minister and his successors were prudent in adopting the difficult measures required to achieve compliance in the absence of compelling evidence of public willingness to pay. The chapter also considers the scope of the adoption of effective climate policies in Canada.
The context in which environmental policy decision-making occurs has changed, resulting from widening environmental problems, increased demands from groups and citizens, continuing pressure on the continent's resources and normative shifts. The complexity of current issues is related to an even broader contextual shift: the globalization of environmental issues exacerbated by trade liberalization, especially on a regional level and the potential contradictions between trade and the environmental international agenda that this implies. This volume studies the new dimensions of resource conflict between Canada and the United States, accounting for the emergence of new bilateral environmental issues and detailing how trade liberalization has fostered both disputes and policy convergence. It also examines the recent shifts in America towards a unilateral foreign policy and how this affects active Canadian diplomacy Ideal as a resource tool for students and academics, this book will be a key resource in the areas of global governance, US-Canadian foreign policy and environmental policy.
Climate change represents a "tragedy of the commons" on a global scale, requiring the cooperation of nations that do not necessarily put the Earth's well-being above their own national interests. And yet international efforts to address global warming have met with some success; the Kyoto Protocol, in which industrialized countries committed to reducing their collective emissions, took effect in 2005 (although without the participation of the United States). Reversing the lens used by previous scholarship on the topic, Global Commons, Domestic Decisions explains international action on climate change from the perspective of countries' domestic politics. In an effort to understand both what progress has been made and why it has been so limited, experts in comparative politics look at the experience of seven jurisdictions in deciding whether or not to ratify the Kyoto Protocol and to pursue national climate change mitigation policies. By analyzing the domestic politics and international positions of the United States, Australia, Russia, China, the European Union, Japan, and Canada, the authors demonstrate clearly that decisions about global policies are often made locally, in the context of electoral and political incentives, the normative commitments of policymakers, and domestic political institutions. Using a common analytical framework throughout, the book offers a unique comparison of the domestic political forces within each nation that affect climate change policy and provides insights into why some countries have been able to adopt innovative and aggressive positions on climate change both domestically and internationally.
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