Obama election will have impact on Canadian environmental policy

The impact of an Obama election on environmental issues has been a hot topic of discussion in the past weeks. While many of the details of Obama’s policy positions remain to be seen, some of what is already know will surely have an impact on their neighbour’s up north:

1. For starters, Obama has indicated that the environment will be a priority issue. This is in sharp contrast to the previous administration. This alone means environmental issues will have much larger visibility which makes it more difficult of the Canadian government to continue to waffle on climate change policies

2. While Obama does not favour a full implementation of Kyoto, he has come out more favourably in support of absolute cap and trade systems versus the intensity-based Canadian approach. He has also clearly indicated that the cost of environmental measures must be balanced against economic realties – a position shared by the Harper government.

3. The most promising idea in Obama’s environmental approach is the promise to catalyze investments around the development of new clean energy sources and environmental technologies. If market activity picks up in this area, the transformation of the economy that it is likely to bring will surely also attract the attention of the closely related Canadian market.