The Case for Participation in Cooperative Approaches Under the Paris Climate Accord

The issue of climate change and how to mitigate its adverse effects has become one of the preeminent challenges for the international community. Many international efforts have been adopted in the past to address the issue of warming temperatures but have unfortunately fallen short of their stated objectives. The failure of past agreements is largely due to their inability at achieving the level of cooperation necessary from party nations to undertake the substantive actions necessary. Ultimately the lack of broad participation, compliance incentives and progress towards lowering emissions created an obstacle that prevented nations from collectively addressing climate change. In 2015, came a new era in international climate change policy with the adoption of the Paris Climate Agreement. The treaty marked a stark departure from past international treaties, granting individual nations additional flexibility and governance over their respective climate initiatives. Notwithstanding its significance, however, there remains critical challenges that must be addressed if the Paris Climate Agreement is expected to maintain its international support. At present, the United States has declared its intention to withdraw from the Agreement and existing signatories are currently limited to domestic emissions mitigation policies. Article 6 of the Paris Climate Agreement provides the framework for cooperative approaches between nations. This provision opens the possibility of emissions trading and carbon markets as a means to more effectively encourage cooperation between nations and deliver cost-effective measures to address climate change. Currently, however, the required guidelines and modalities governing Article 6 have yet to be formally adopted, stalling the ability for nations to engage in mitigation opportunities that may exist across borders. From Canada’s perspective, Article 6 holds the potential to improve its ability to meet their climate commitment, assist other nations lower their carbon footprint and deliver a global reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. To uncover this potential, this paper lays out a hypothetical cooperative approach between Canada and China for the displacement of Chinese coal fired electricity with Canadian LNG. The goal was to test the feasibility of such an agreement, its compatibility with the Paris Climate Agreement and to identify the challenges that may act as obstacles. Based on the findings of this analysis, there exists the possibility for such an approach to occur that delivers a net reduction in global emissions and acts complementary to the climate commitments of both Canada and China. Moreover, such an approach also provides the opportunity for China to address other issues such as air pollution and the transition away from less efficient coal fired electricity plants. At the same time, however, such an agreement is challenged by the low price of domestically sourced coal in China, lack of LNG infrastructure, and regulatory concerns relating to the development and export of LNG in Canada.

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