You are invited to participate in a one-day conference to discuss recommendations to advance Canadian interests with the next US Administration and Congress.
During the past nine months, a group of experts, Canadian and American, have prepared a series of policy papers addressing themes that will be critical to Canada-US engagement. These include the border, defence cooperation, the Arctic, the energy-environment nexus, competitiveness, institutional linkages, the fallout from the financial crisis, the Americas, and engagement with the United States and other key allies. The questions addressed in each paper (the papers will be available on the project website) and to be discussed at the conference, include:
What are the key challenges to Canadian interests that arise from current US policies? What changes in US policies can be expected from both a new Administration and a new Congress? How will these changes affect, both positively and adversely, Canadian interests?
What are the common or shared Canadian and US interests in the issue area? In what respect, if any, do Canadian and US interests compete with each other in the issue area?
What are the main obstacles to achieving traction on the bilateral policy initiatives that are being recommended in the issue area?
What key policy and political initiatives should the Canadian government pursue with the new US Administration to promote Canada's interests?
The discussions at the conference will inform a strategy document on effective Canadian engagement of the next US Administration that will be presented to the Prime Minister and premiers on January 20, 2009, the US presidential inauguration. While this is an independent project, organized out of Carleton University, it has been undertaken with the knowledge and support of the federal government, with parliamentary, provincial government, and private sector involvement and sponsorship. Our advisory committee includes representatives from Government (federal and provincial), the private sector (including the Canadian Council for Chief Executives and the Canadian Chamber of Commerce), as well as the not-for-profit sector.
We encourage you to make your reservation ASAP with Jane Imai (613-520-2600 ext. 8108 or CTPL@Carleton.ca) at the Centre for Trade Policy and Law using the registration form as space is limited. The registration fee for the day-long event and concluding reception is $350 + GST. For further information please contact Marta Wozniak at the Centre for Trade Policy and Law at 613-520-2600 ext. 2924 or Marta_Wozniak@carleton.ca.
The project is co-chaired by Derek Burney, former Canadian Ambassador to the United States and Fen Hampson, Director of Carleton University's Norman Paterson School of International Affairs. Colin Robertson is on loan from the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade to direct the project, and the Centre for Trade Policy and Law at Carleton University has provided the secretariat.
This conference will be held under the Chatham House Rule.
Impacts of U.S. Climate Change Policy for Canada:
Exploring the promise of integrating Canadian and U.S. carbon markets
Dr. J.R. DeShazo, Director of Canadian Studies, University of California, Los Angeles
With the coming presidential election, the U.S. is likely to enact sweeping climate change legislation that will impact Canadian-U.S. relations in significant ways. The single largest impact will be to Canadian energy exports which may become markedly more expensive in the U.S. Even small reductions in U.S. demand for Canadian energy could have large negative impacts on the Canadian economy. On the other hand, there are ways Canada may benefit from US climate policy. Canada’s clean hydropower resources will be in greater demand. Similarly, Canada’s large stock of forests currently sequesters carbon which may enable Canada to sell carbon offsets to the US companies.
Exactly how Canada will be impacted by the U.S. climate policy depends upon which of several climate policy designs the U.S. Congress ultimately chooses. The currently favored policy is the Warner-Lieberman bill recently introduced in the Senate. The impacts on Canada also depend upon what type of national climate policy Canada adopts and how soon it will do so. Negative impacts on Canada of U.S. climate change policy will be smaller if Canada and the U.S. can synchronize their climate policies and integrate their carbon markets.
The purpose of this conference is to bring together Canadian and U.S. policymakers, business leaders and academics to explore in detail the three critical questions:
1. Canadian Energy: How will alternative designs of U.S. climate policy affect the quantity and price of exported Canadian energy? Which aspects of U.S. policies will have the largest likely impact on Canadian energy exports and why?
2. Canadian Forest and Hydropower. Which aspects of U.S. climate policy being considered will provide the greatest benefits to the Canadian forestry and hydropower sectors and why?
3. Implication for Canadian Climate Change Policy. How does the U.S. and the European’s adoption of carbon cap-and-trade programs affect the pros and cons of alternative national policies that Canada may ultimately adopt?
Conference Outputs. The objective of the conference is to help inform and shape the agendas of Canadian and U.S. policymakers, industry leaders and academics with respect to U.S. and Canadian climate change policy. It is scheduled for January 2009 in Los Angeles. In preparation for the conference, eight papers will be commissioned that will serve as the launching pad for discussion at the conference. These papers will subsequently be published as an edited volume in mid 2009.