OTTAWA - A new study on the economy and the environment recommends the federal government combat climate change with a "silver buckshot" of policies rather than a single silver bullet.
No one policy is adequate to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions, concludes a report released Friday by the Pembina Institute.
The 120-page report, commissioned by the TD Bank, says governments should instead consider a range of options when crafting environmental policy.
Those options could include a cap-and-trade system, a carbon tax, a fund for offsets, tougher regulations, targeted financial incentives, investments in infrastructure and technology and a national emissions target for 2020.
"A comprehensive suite of policies . . . is likely needed to capture cost-effective, emission-reduction opportunities that would go unrealized with carbon pricing alone," the report says.
Even though multiple policies are needed, it's important to keep carbon-pricing policies as simple as possible, said Matthew Bramley of the Pembina Institute, one of the report's authors.
"Every additional complication . . . is an additional source of delay and debate and dispute and attempts by one sector or another to gain an advantage," he said.
The report does not recommend emissions targets. It says further study of specific policies and price levels is needed.
"I don't think there is a credible body of research that nails down 'this is the way to approach it, and this is the way to hit various different targets'," said Don Drummond, chief economist at TD Bank.
He says industry suffers in the absence of detailed environmental policies because businesses can't plan for the future.
A spokesman for Environment Minister John Baird dismissed the report.
"I do note that the report indicated that the number of climate change plans introduced by the Liberals when they were in government were determined to be complete failures," Garry Keller said in an e-mail.
Environmental policy debates in Canada tend to polarize proponents of carbon taxes and those who favour cap-and-trade systems.
Carbon taxes put a price on pollution to encourage industry to lower their emissions.
Cap-and-trade schemes put limits on greenhouse gases and allow companies that don't meet the targets to buy and sell credits from those with a surplus instead of reducing their emissions.
It's argued that carbon taxes offer more price certainty while cap-and-trade offers more certainty about emissions reductions.
The Conservative government's environmental plan calls for cap and trade, along with regulatory measures, investments in green technology funds and credits for companies that took early action to cut their emissions.
The Tory plan aims to lower greenhouse-gas emissions 20 per cent from 2006 levels by 2020.
Critics say those targets are less stringent than those in the Kyoto Protocol, which the previous Liberal government ratified but the Tories eschewed.
The Harper government insists the Kyoto targets are unattainable after years of inaction by its predecessors, and trying to meet them would ruin the economy.
The Conservatives used a similar message to pillory Liberal Leader Stephane Dion during the federal election for campaigning on a carbon tax.
It's unlikely another politician will touch a carbon tax for a while after the policy became political Kryptonite during the campaign.
Drummond and Bramley say a carbon tax is not necessary if there's a well-designed, cap-and-trade system in place.
Earlier this year, however, the federal government's own National Roundtable on the Environment and the Economy urged the Tories to adopt a carbon tax. Baird ignored the suggestion.
Three provincial governments -- British Columbia, Manitoba and Quebec -- already have, or plan to introduce, carbon taxes.
The provinces, along with Ontario, formed a coalition with seven U.S. states that proposes to lower emissions from power plants, manufacturers and vehicles.
The Western Climate Initiative would establish a regional market to trade carbon emissions in an effort to lower greenhouse gases 15 per cent below 2005 levels by 2020.
The provinces say the WCI's cap-and-trade scheme will work in tandem with their carbon taxes.
