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Deploying negative emission technologies has become crucial for limiting the global temperature rise to approximately 1.5 °C above preindustrial levels. DAC technologies are being explored as one of the prospective options. These technologies have been thoroughly investigated as a potential project to capture CO 2 emissions and provide purified air, natural gas, or fuel oil. An applied approach, on the other hand, was not taken into consideration while evaluating the influence that this technology has on emissions. For this reason, British Columbia provides a substantial chance to examine emissions that were produced after the DAC actions were put into place in 2015. In this study, the difference-in-differences methodology is employed for the very first time to compare the emissions that are produced by the transport sectors in British Columbia with those emitted by other provinces in Canada. The role that GDP and population play in the release of emissions is also taken into consideration in this paper. Based on the research results, it can be observed that the implementation of DAC initiatives has yielded notable effects. Evidence shows that the DAC effort has led to an average reduction of 0.08 in logarithmic CO 2 emissions in the transport sector. By accounting for GDP and population, the empirical results indicate that DAC technology reduced CO 2 emissions in British Columbia compared to provinces without DAC facilities. DAC initiatives are expected to become increasingly prevalent between the mid-2030s and 2040s. Overall policy implications suggest that there is a need for DAC technologies to collaborate with alternative mitigation technologies, or alternative technologies should collaborate with DAC technologies that are more efficient to achieve the targeted goals in a short time. • The study offers empirical evidence of DAC technology's impact, providing insights beyond theoretical conjectures. • Based on the research results, it can be seen that the implementation of DAC facilities has yielded notable effects. • DAC technology in British Columbia has led to a significant and negative impact on CO 2 emissions compared to other provinces without DAC facilities. • The study highlights the differential effectiveness of DAC across transport sectors, pointing toward a need for tailored implementation strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In terms of energy resources, Canada is an important player on the world scene. However, the energy systems of the Canadian provinces and territories are much diversified and a national energy strategy is missing in order to optimize the management of energy systems. The objective of this paper is twofold. First, we introduce TIMES-Canada, a new multi-regional energy model that has been developed using the most advanced TIMES optimization modeling framework, while keeping a very high level of details in the database (5000 specific technologies; 400 commodities) compared with other Canadian energy models. Second, we define and analyze possible futures for the Canadian integrated energy system on a 2050 horizon, under five different baselines: a Reference scenario as well as four alternate scenarios corresponding to different oil prices (Low and High) and socio-economic growth trends (Slow and Fast). In our Reference scenario, we show that the Canadian final energy consumption is expected to increase by 43% between 2007 and 2050. The Fast scenario leads to the maximum increase compared with the Reference scenario (21% in 2050). In all scenarios, oil products will continue to dominate on the long term, although in a decreasing proportion over time (from 43% in 2007 to 29% in 2050) in favor of electricity (31% of the additional demand in 2050) and biomass/biofuels. Regarding the corresponding optimal energy production paths, we illustrate two main trends: (1) a gradual replacement of onshore conventional oil & gas sources by unconventional and offshore sources (oil sands is expected to represent half of the production in 2050), and (2) a significant penetration of renewables in the electricity mix is shown after 2035 due to increases in oil import prices and decreases in renewable technology costs. The development and calibration of such a detailed technology-rich model represent an important contribution for Canada: TIMES-Canada is the only optimization model covering in details the large diversity of provincial energy systems on a long term horizon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]