Analyzing Canadian Climate Change Policy: A Case Study Approach

This case study examines Canadian climate change policy, focusing on rational and bounded rational approaches to environmental conservation. The student argues for the implementation of new and aggressive policies, such as carbon taxes and regulations to reduce plastic waste pollution, to mitigate the negative impacts of climate change. The rational approach is favored for its potential to reduce fossil fuel consumption and promote environmentally friendly energy sources. The analysis contrasts this with bounded rationalism, which tends to maintain existing policies, and is deemed less effective. The paper references supporting literature, including studies on carbon tax impacts and marine pollution policies. The conclusion reinforces the need for proactive policy changes to protect the Canadian ecosystem.

Running head: CANADIAN CLIMATE CHANGE POLICY 1
Canadian Climate Change Policy
Name
Institution

CANADIAN CLIMATE CHANGE POLICY 2
Canadian Climate Change Policy
The Canadian government needs to adopt and maintain policies that promote
environmental conservation to avoid negative impacts of climate change. Rational and bounded
rational approaches are important in the adoption and implemention of these policies. While the
rational approach recommends aggressive new policies, bounded rationalism is more mainly
aims at maintaining existing policies.
In my opinion, new and more aggressive policies need to be implemented to curb
activities that threaten the Canadian ecosystem. For instance, to conserve the marine
environment, Pettipas, Bernier & Walker(2016) suggest that new policies should be set to reduce
plastic waste pollution. New policies need to be set.
The rational approach would also lead to the imposition of a carbon tax on fossil fuel use.
According to Liu, et al. (2018), imposing a tax on carbon-emitting manufacturers increase their
respective costs, thus inducing the firms to reduce their use of fossil fuels. This new policy
would help Canada reduce Carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide emission due to reduced
consumption of fossil fuels and the use of other environmentally friendly energy sources.
Bounded rationalism approaches aim at maintaining the existing policies to conserve the
environment. The approach, unlike the rational approach, refrains the Canadian government to
impose carbon tax until the United States imposes a carbon tax. In Canada, only a few provinces
such as Quebec and British Columbia have adopted carbon-pricing strategies (Abeyratne, 2019).
The bounded rationalism approach, thus, tends to be ineffective to promote environmental
conservation in Canada.

CANADIAN CLIMATE CHANGE POLICY 3
To conclude, although both the rational and bounded rationalism approaches are
necessary for the environment, the rational approaches prove to be more effective. Canada
requires new and more aggressive policies.

CANADIAN CLIMATE CHANGE POLICY 4
References
Abeyratne, R. (2019). The Climate Change Equation. In Legal Priorities in Air Transport (pp.
137-155). Springer, Cham.
Liu, L., Huang, C. Z., Huang, G., Baetz, B., & Pittendrigh, S. M. (2018). How a carbon tax will
affect an emission-intensive economy: A case study of the Province of Saskatchewan,
Canada. Energy, 159, 817-826.
Pettipas, S., Bernier, M., & Walker, T. R. (2016). A Canadian policy framework to mitigate
plastic marine pollution. Marine Policy, 68, 117-122.