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The paper explains the findings of the MC3 Project (Meeting the Climate Change Challenge). This project brought together over 100 researchers, practitioners, civil-society leaders, and policy-makers, led by researchers from Royal Roads University, Simon Fraser University, and the University of British Columbia, with 12 major research partners from the public and private sectors, including the Union of British Columbia municipalities. Researchers conducted a detailed evaluation of 11 leading, yet different, municipalities across the province to identify the leading innovators and innovations on climate action. The case studies revealed the following key drivers of innovation, in order of prominence: the legislative and policy framework, supported by provincially led incentives and tools, access to partnership funding and intermediary support, and framing the issue as critically important. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change is putting infrastructure, food supply, water resources, ecosystems, and human health at risk. These risks will be exacerbated depending on the degree of additional greenhouse gas emissions. Urgent action is needed to limit the severity of impacts associated with further warming. British Columbia (BC) has taken action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from carbonbased fuels by introducing a carbon tax in 2008. As an innovative approach to climate change mitigation, especially in North America, studies evaluating its effectiveness are valuable. We assessed the long-term viability potential of the BC carbon tax using common pool resource design principles, a novel application of the design principles to environmental policy. We found that the design principles can be applied productively to environmental policy and larger scale air pollution problems. With regard to the BC carbon tax, our findings suggest that closer monitoring of user behavior, further increases of the tax over time, and pursuing efforts for a more elaborate system of nested enterprises and interjurisdictional cooperation could increase the long-term success of the BC carbon tax. We also found that the design principles allowed us to more comprehensively reach conclusions regarding the broader effectiveness of the tax when compared to existing policy analysis. Traditionally, climate policy evaluation has focused on the end goal without considering broader constraints and issues of resource allocation. We suggest that common pool resource theory, which is based on strong theoretical principles and encourages reflexivity, will be able to address those limitations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The failure of the United Nations negotiations on climate change in Copenhagen presents governments with an opportunity to consider new approaches to implementing climate change policy. Developed nations like Canada and Australia continue to fall short of their commitments to Kyoto targets and predict that their greenhouse gas emissions will continue to rise. The planning and development of metropolitan areas continues to promote high levels of consumption and increased dependence on fossil fuel-based energy. City governments in Vancouver and Melbourne have strong commitments to both mitigation and adaptation policy action against the impact of global warming. Both argue they are constrained in their efforts by federal institutional arrangements and require improved cooperation from other levels of government. This article uses the conceptual framework developed by the OECD to support greater levels of cooperation between governments in multilevel systems when implementing climate change policies. The article examines the contextual factors inherent in the institutional arrangements and uses the experiences of Vancouver and Melbourne to explore the factors that encourage or discourage cooperation in climate change policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]