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Kathryn Harrison

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Federalism is a complex institution that offers both advantages and disadvantages for climate policy (Fenna, Jodoin and Setzer 2023). On the one hand, it creates opportunities for policy innovation and learning; potential for one order of government to act when the other has not; and opportunities for provinces or states to devise policies tailored to their unique economic or environmental circumstances and citizen preferences. On the other hand, overlapping jurisdiction can yield intergovernmental conflict and, at the limit, a “joint decision trap” in which policymaking grinds to a halt (Sharpf 1988). Left to their own devices, provinces may show little concern about pollutants like greenhouse gases that flow beyond their borders, and may be reluctant to regulate pollution as they engage in competition for investment and jobs. Which of these dynamics prevails depends on the politics of climate policy at a given place and time, and the division of powers in a particular federation. Climate change is especially challenging in the Canadian federation for three compounding reasons