The Alberta Effect and Canadian Climate Policy

Abstract

This paper aims to develop the concept of an ‘Alberta effect’ as a type of antonym to the ‘California effect’ in the literature on environmental policy in federal states. The paper argues that Canada’s efforts to achieve an effective national climate strategy over the past 25 years have, to a large extent, been hampered by an Alberta effect, where a relatively small jurisdiction has not only used a permissive federalist architecture to grind federal action to a halt, but has also completely overwhelmed emissions reductions made elsewhere in the federation. The article explores the nature of this effect and the conditions which have allowed it to occur, and provides some preliminary insight into how Ottawa might hope to manage this situation and work towards decarbonising the Canadian economy going forward.