Newsletter
Trade and Climate Change Forum Follow-Up - January 2010
By Colin Ground, Lawrence Herman
We were delighted to see so many clients and friends of the firm at our Trade and Climate Change Forum on January 20, 2010. For those of you who were unable to attend, you missed a lively and informative program! Our presenters, including Larry Herman from Cassels Brock & Blackwell LLP, Gary Hufbauer from the Peterson Institute and Dick Cunningham from Steptoe & Johnson, looked at developments internationally and in the US affecting Canadian business.
In summary, the discussion brought up the following considerations for anyone in Canada with a business interest in climate change:
- With the failure to achieve international agreement at the Copenhagen talks in December, GHG-reduction initiatives will revert to the national and regional levels.
- In the US, President Obama’s setbacks in the Congress will not halt that country’s GHG-reduction efforts. The focus has already shifted to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which is developing stringent carbon reduction standards that could affect Canadian exporters.
- As well as the EPA, various states such as California are implementing low-carbon fuel standards and other rules restricting GHGs. This is certain to continue in response to growing public pressure. These state actions will also have an impact on trans-border business for Canadian companies.
- National and regional GHG reduction measures will provide a further stimulus to carbon credit trading in Europe (under the ETS) and in North America on the Chicago Climate Exchange and also the trading of offsets in other voluntary markets around the globe.
- For Canadian businesses trading into the US, all of this poses challenges and opportunities. The challenges concern the fear that US measures will impede entry of carbon-intensive products from Canada by means of border measures.
- The opportunities, on the other hand, are for Canadian companies to develop green technologies that can thrive in global markets. There is also the opportunity to engage in the quickly expanding carbon trading markets in North America, Europe and elsewhere.
Cassels Brock & Blackwell LLP offers advice to clients on these matters, both on the international aspects as well as in issues in carbon trading, offsets and participation in the GHG-reduction mechanisms under the Kyoto Protocol and in other parts of the world.
For more information, please contact Lawrence Herman (lherman@casselsbrock.com) or Colin Ground (cground@casselsbrock.com) who will be pleased to discuss any of this with you or put you in contact with other lawyers at the firm involved in advising on green energy and related issues.