Environment, Enterprise and Development

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This is the collection for the University of Waterloo's School of Environment, Enterprise and Development.

Research outputs are organized by type (eg. Master Thesis, Article, Conference Paper).

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Equator Principles and Climate Change Issues: Examining the EPs’ Climate Change Policies and Analyzing the Likely Effectiveness of these Policies
(University of Waterloo, 2016-04-07) Aboutorabifard, Haniehalsadat; Craik, Neil
Climate change is a global environmental issue that adversely affects economic activities; on the other hand, economic activities, in particular infrastructure project financing, are one of the main drivers of current increases in atmospheric greenhouses gas (GHG) concentrations. Accordingly, based on the principles of shareholder, stakeholder, and institutional theories, a number of financial institutions, called the Equator Principles Financial Institutions (EPFIs), voluntarily developed the Equator Principles (EPs) as “a risk management framework for determining, assessing and managing environmental and social risk in projects” (EPs-website). In 2013, EPs were updated (EPIII) to include project-related climate change issues in project assessment. Doing so enables the EPFIs to reduce credit risks, enhance reputation, and gain legitimacy. However, despite the development of EPIII, its climate change policies are left vague, and different opinions have evolved around their likely effectiveness in helping the EPFIs to manage their climate risks and change their behavior towards climate change management. Apart from existing criticisms that the EPs fail to enforce the EPFIs’ commitment to voluntary standards, this study examines the likely effectiveness of the EPs’ mandates from a climate change perspective. This study follows two main methodological approaches: 1) primary document and policy analysis and 2) comparative legal and synthetic analysis to analyze the EPs’ climate change policies and identifying potential challenges to address climate change issues through Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA). This research analyzes the existing guidelines on climate change management and elaborates underlying principles and motivators for climate change policies to develop a set of generalized criteria for the effective incorporation of climate change issues into EIA. In light of these criteria, I then examine how EPIII include climate change in the EIA for projects proposed for bank financing. This study will analyze whether the EPs are having a positive impact on managing climate change issues and reveal to which extent the EPs confirms the principles of underlying theories and fulfills the primary motivators.
Examining Applications of Earth System Law in Canada's Species at Risk Act
(University of Waterloo, 2025-01-22) Rygus, Matthew; Craik, Neil
The worsening biodiversity crisis poses urgent questions regarding the capabilities of our legal systems to address ecological issues in the face of increasing human pressures and rapid environmental change. Earth System Law (ESL) is a novel approach to legal regulation that embeds the principles of inclusivity, complexity and interdependency according to an Earth-system perspective into legal systems. Such an approach better accounts for the larger spatial and temporal scales of Earth systems while utilizing a less anthropocentric orientation. To date, ESL research has generally been limited to conceptual analysis, however this study explores the empirical application of ESL by developing an assessment tool that incorporates ESL characteristics. The tool is then used to critically assess Canada’s Species at Risk Act (SARA). Drawing on the ESL literature, the study develops detailed criteria which are used to conduct a directed content analysis of a selection (n=sixteen) of SARA documents, consisting of five recovery strategies, five multi-species action plans, five management plans and the SARA legislation itself. The specific ways and extents that SARA, via its instruments, aligns and misaligns with ESL are outlined. Results from the content analysis indicate that SARA exhibits only select ESL characteristics, particularly the meaningful inclusion of present-day beings, the recognition of unknowns in a complex world and the consideration of adaptation and precaution as productive responses to complexity. SARA is misaligned with ESL by working against many of its characteristics, such as the meaningful inclusion of both future humans and geographic areas, complete acceptance of Earth-system complexity, full commitment to adaptation and the acknowledgement of Earth-system interdependencies, outlining an anthropocentric orientation. Overall, the study offers contributions regarding the conceptual development and real-world application of ESL, the shortfalls of SARA and measures to improve outcomes for biodiversity through legal systems.
Examining Gender Responsive Implementation of National Climate Change Policies
(University of Waterloo, 2019-03-21) Fawad, Anusheh; Craik, Neil
Globally, there is a growing recognition of implementing gender considerations into national climate change policies and actions. However, examining climate policies at the domestic level remains an under researched topic. The aim of this study is to investigate if countries are reflecting gender equality concerns and the linkages between climate change within their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and National Communications (NCs) (both of which are national climate change policies) in a gender responsive manner. Through the literature review, which incorporates feminist perspectives, this research identifies five key concepts that can contribute to the gender responsive implementation of climate change policies. The following five concepts were used to build the gender responsive criteria: human rights, gender equal participation, power relations, gender mainstreaming and budgeting. Using the gender responsive criteria, I performed thematic analysis of six countries (Brazil, Canada, Egypt, Finland, Indonesia and Sweden) NDCs and NCs. The thematic analysis revealed various findings regarding the reflection of gender responsive implementation in the policies analyzed. Several data extracts displayed multiple connections with the gender responsive criteria, however the majority of the NDCs and NCs did not incorporate gender responsive concepts consistently throughout the policies. Much of the language pertaining to gender was geared towards empowering girls and women in developing countries; frequently positioned women as vulnerable in the context of climate change and often discussed gender in relation to adaptation and disaster reduction strategies. Such findings were anticipated as these issues are highlighted across the gender and climate change policy literature. However, the results from the analysis provided useful insights on the current situation on gender responsive implementation in NDCs and NCs.
Governing Carbon Removal: Deploying Direct Air Capture Amidst Canada’s Energy Transition
(University of Waterloo, 2023-09-08) Cortinovis, Stephanie Rose; Craik, Neil
Carbon dioxide removal (CDR) technologies, such as direct air carbon capture and storage (DACCS), will be critical in limiting the rise of the global temperature over the next century. Compared to other forms of CDR, DACCS requires little land and carries fewer environmental risks. Still, scaling up DACCS technologies requires the support of a complex array of policies and infrastructure across multiple overlapping policy areas, such as climate, energy, technology innovation and natural resource management. DACCS policies will be built on the foundations of existing policies in these areas and will be influenced by the structure and content of this policy landscape. While the literature on DACCS and other CDR technologies acknowledges the path-dependent nature of policy development, it has tended to focus on abstract policy prescriptions that are not rooted in the specific political, social and physical (infrastructural) context of the implementing state. This thesis addresses this deficit by identifying the key policy foundations for developing and deploying DACCS at scale in Canada. Drawing on socio-technical transitions theory, particularly the multi-level perspective, I identify the constituent policy areas that are likely to form the future DACCS policy regime. The purpose of this policy review and analysis is to show that the policies used to deploy DACCS will need to address systemic issues of social acceptability; financing climate mitigation innovations; energy system and resource constraints; coordinating and regulating carbon storage and transport; and establishing general climate policies that support the role of DACCS in the transition process. Using a database of Canadian climate policies (n=457), I populate these key policy areas with existing policies, which enables me to map and analyze the emergent DACCS policy landscape in Canada. The growing body of literature on the policies needed for scaling up DACCS provides a basis for analyzing the adequacy of Canada’s current policies while creating system maps has allowed me to identify the potential trajectories of the system by identifying potential niches and broader landscape influences within the system, as well as identifying gaps and potential barriers to the system transition process. This thesis contributes to our understanding of national-level DAC policy development by providing a framework for identifying components of the DAC system and linking those components to desired policy outcomes.
Governing for Energy Transition in Rentier States
(University of Waterloo, 2025-01-14) Ohadi, Alireza; Craik, Neil; Murray (Co-supervisor), Dan
Climate change has led to increasingly strong pressures for all states to decarbonize their energy systems and economies. Energy system decarbonization faces socio-institutional barriers to phase out of hydrocarbons, which are highly integrated into global energy and economic systems. To address these barriers, the energy governance literature provides insights into the factors that influence socio-technical transitions, including the transition from hydrocarbon to low-carbon energy. Yet, when it comes to country scales, many of these studies focus on the transition pathways from the perspective of the energy importer and developed countries, leaving perspectives of the hydrocarbon rich developing states relatively unexplored. Unlike the importer countries, hydrocarbon rich countries have local access to fossil fuels, which they subsidize for domestic use, and export for fiscal revenues. These conditions make energy transition a uniquely challenging and path-dependent process for the hydrocarbon exporting countries. This thesis identifies the salient factors for energy transition to a low-carbon energy system and economy for the hydrocarbon rich-nations that rely heavily on fiscal incomes from fossil fuel exports – referred to as “rentier states” (Mahdavy, 1970). The identification of factors consists of universal, rentier, and country-levels, using a multi-level perspective (MLP) framework. The universal and rentier aspects aim at identifying the factors that increase pressure for (i.e. landscape factors) and resist against (i.e. regime factors) decarbonization of the energy systems and economies, respectively, at global and rentier state levels. The country-level aspect of the research is a case study on Iran – which is a rentier state. The Iranian case study allows to analyze interactions between the identified landscape and regime factors, in the real world-context of a rentier state. The case study identifies the influences of those factors on the path for decarbonizing the energy system and economy in Iran. To fulfil these objectives, the research analyzes the literature and relevant global, regional and national documents in the realms of energy governance, climate, technologies, and political economy. The research uses interviews with former Iranian officials in senior governmental positions to compensate for the scarcity of Iran-related documents and literature relating to energy transition, and to reduce the gap between the academic and real-world standpoints in the research. The thesis’ findings on MLP dynamics among the influential factors on Iran’s path for decarbonization identify the centralized governance of the energy system as a leverage regime factor that impedes rentier states’ efforts in decarbonizing their economy. Moreover, the thesis concludes that while energy mix and economic diversifications are both necessary approaches for phasing out of hydrocarbon resources and revenues, these strategies may be difficult to be pursued in parallel in the rentier states. In addition, the thesis finds that phasing out of fiscal crude revenues at the upstream of the energy sector [through economic diversification] could obstruct the path for phasing of fossil fuels in the downstream [under energy mix diversification].
Trends in Mandatory Municipal-Level Energy Benchmarking Policies for Large Commercial Buildings in the United States
(University of Waterloo, 2016-11-29) Campbell, Sean; Craik, Neil; Thistlethwaite, Jason; Lynes, Jennifer
Mandatory municipal energy benchmarking for commercial buildings are a novel form of policy emerging across cities in the United States. These benchmarking policies require the owners of covered buildings to report on energy consumption to a targeted group of stakeholders with the goal of attaining a variety of benefits including reduced greenhouse gas emissions, more efficient real estate markets, and energy savings for rate-payers. Energy benchmarking policies are rooted in new governance literature in which non-state actors adopt some or all of the decision-making authority of government, and targeted information disclosure literature which seeks to stimulate specific policy outcomes by incorporating new information into the decision-making process of both the targeted company and information consumers. Early research on municipal energy benchmarking policies for commercial buildings has focused on the underlying reporting frameworks for benchmarking and minimal research has yet to examine the interplay between the many components of an energy benchmarking policy—everything from the size of building that is covered by the policy, to the disclosure trigger and penalty for non-compliance. The primary objective of this study is to assess whether the design of benchmarking policies conform to the expectations of new governance and targeted information disclosure theories. The principal approach employed within this thesis is that of comparative policy analysis with documentary analysis of seven active municipal benchmarking policies in the United States. This study concludes with an analysis of the gap between theory and practice, refinement of the theories that explain benchmarking, and highlighting of opportunities to improve the practice of early adopters. This study finds that while differences in design exist between the individual policies, energy benchmarking policies do largely align with the expectations of new governance and targeted information disclosure theories.

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Browsing Environment, Enterprise and Development by Author "Craik, Neil"