An alternative policy evaluation of the British Columbia carbon tax: broadening the application of Elinor Ostrom’s design principles for managing common-pool resources

Abstract

ABSTRACT. 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.

Advancing social-ecological research through teaching: summary, observations, and challenges

“…Tyson (2017) similarly used the SES framework to illustrate the advantages and limitations a large comanagement effort, the Inuvialuit Settlement Region in northern Canada. Lacroix and Richards (2015) applied the design principles to the carbon tax in British Columbia, Canada, and found that their assessment added insights beyond those provided by existing policy analyses. Ban et al (2015b) used a SES lens to examine changes in governance through time in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, Australia, assessing changes in property rights and multiple goods and ecosystems services.…”

“…These tended to be descriptive case studies. Those studies that took a more analytical approach all used the design principles to assess the effectiveness of management in their case studies (Lacroix and Richards 2015, Lancaster et al 2015, Villamayor-Tomas et al 2016. Drafts of several articles initially attempted to do both, i.e., use the SES framework and design principles, but ended up focusing on design principles only.…”

“…This special feature thus had two objectives: (1) provide examples and support for teachers committed to engaging students with ideas around complex SESs (Ban et al 2015a, Cox 2015, and (2) provide a set of case studies led by or involving students that examines large case studies (> 10,000 km²; Ban et al 2015b, Lacroix and Richards 2015, Lancaster et al 2015, Taggart-Hodge and Schoon 2016, Tyson 2017, Villamayor-Tomas et al 2016). …”

Past management affects success of current joint forestry management institutions in Tajikistan

“…They can be used to assess the potential of a given institutional design to lead to successful self-governance; however, they cannot explain variation in management success in common pool resource institutions that come about from different real-world contexts (the rules-in-use) of similarly designed common pool resource institutions. The design principles were intended for community-scale resources management and are therefore appropriate for this study, but it should be noted that modifications to the principles for larger-scale common pool resource management have been suggested by Lacroix and Richards (2015). Data on the design and implementation of JFM by GIZ were collected through participatory observation and document review (project documents, progress reports, monitoring reports).…”

Pacific Canada’s Rockfish Conservation Areas: using Ostrom’s design principles to assess management effectiveness

“…The design principles originally emerged from studies examining community-based systems (i.e., where communities organize themselves to manage their resources), but their relevance to larger systems is an area of active study. For example, the design principles have been scaled up for large systems like the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, the International Convention for the Conservation of Atlantic Tuna, and the BC Carbon Tax (Epstein et al 2014, Lacroix andRichards 2015).…”