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In the context of sub-global participation in greenhouse gas mitigation efforts, this paper investigates the effectiveness of a Canada-U.S. emissions bubble under their existing regional trade agreement. It also explores the potential economic impact of carbon tariff harmonization through the implementation of a common Canada-U.S. external border tariff adjustment as a mean to address competitiveness issues. Using a multi-region, multi-sector computable general equilibrium model the paper finds that the creation of an emission bubble between the two countries could improve efficiency. The findings also suggest that a carbon tariff harmonization policy could give rise to distributional issues among Annex I regions and could fail to mitigate the negative competitiveness impacts of carbon abatement policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper briefly surveys the history of natural gas use and describes the main features of current gas consumption. The share of gas in total energy consumption, and the sectoral distribution of its use in major consuming regions are discussed. The main changes in the pattern of gas consumption since 1980 are reviewed and explained. I analyze the likely implications of (a) the emergence of the combined cycle gas power generation; (b) the rising environmental premium of gas; and (c) the transformation of the West European gas market structure. The paper concludes that natural gas will substantially increase its share of global energy consumption in the next 15-20 years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The multi-sector end-use energy model E3MC was used to analyze the energy and greenhouse gas emissions impact of adding a carbon tax to efficiency improvement standards for the residential sector in Canada and the USA. Compared to standards alone, the addition of the tax led to further residential emission reductions in Canada, but attenuated the residential emission reductions in the USA. Examination of the relative residential electricity:natural gas prices demonstrated that the different country impacts were due to an increase in relative prices in the USA, but a decrease in relative prices in Canada that led to opposite shifts in preference for electricity over natural gas in the residential sector. Markedly different impacts of the carbon tax on electricity prices was due to the predominance of hydroelectric power in Canada and coal-fired electric generation in the USA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]