Category: Recommendations

Re-orienting domestic public finance and subsidies away from fossil fuels

Canada has introduced policies to end subsidies and international public financing for unabated fossil fuel projects. Building upon this, Canada must now close gaps in existing policies and introduce a policy to end domestic public finance for fossil fuels.

Canada first committed to phase out inefficient fossil fuel subsidies in 2009 at the G20, and recently published its framework assessment for fossil fuel subsidies. Canada also committed to ending domestic public finance for fossil fuels, and to publish a plan to do so by fall 2024.

Meanwhile, federal fossil fuel subsidies and supports totaled at least $20.2 billion in 2022, including direct transfers and foregone tax revenues as well as public financing. Domestic public finance occupies a significant portion of Canada’s fossil fuel support, and is not covered by existing phase-out policies. Export Development Canada provided at least $4.3 billion annually on average for domestic fossil fuel projects from 2019-2021.

The urgency of the climate crisis and the need for rapid emissions reductions means new government investments must be focused on carbon-free energy systems and not prolong reliance on fossil fuels. In keeping with the polluter pays principle, the costs of reducing emissions in oil and gas production and other high-emitting industries should be borne by industry.

Recommendations:

  1. Close gaps in fossil fuel subsidies and international public finance policies [FIN, ECCC]
    • Publish the results of Canada’s long overdue self-review by fall 2023, including a full inventory of all federal fossil fuel tax and non- tax subsidies and supports, and a rationale for any deemed ‘efficient’. [FIN, ECCC]
    • Close gaps in existing subsidies and public finance policies to ensure no further support for ‘abated’ oil and gas production, including through carbon capture and storage. [FIN, NRCan, ISED, ECCC]
    • Create a central mechanism for transparency, accountability, and enforcement of current policies to ensure they are upheld across departments. This could include annual government audits of departmental spending. [ECCC]
    • Ensure Budget 2024 reflects the updated policy, in particular through the elimination of tax-related subsidies (e.g., development expense reductions, accelerated investment incentive). [FIN]
  2. End domestic public financing for fossil fuels, particularly from Export Development Canada (EDC), by Budget 2024 [FIN, GAC]
    • Building upon Canada’s international public finance policy, introduce a policy to end EDC’s support for fossil fuels domestically, with robust exclusionary policies that include indirect support and at minimum align with those in the international policy.
    • Align EDC’s entire portfolio with Canada’s climate commitments and a robust 1.5°C degree scenario. Substantially improve EDC’s target for reducing carbon-intensive investments and develop concrete plans for reducing these investments in order to support the transition to clean energy.
    • Increase transparency on public finance transactions through EDC and GHG emissions associated with investments.
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Canada’s carbon pricing still needs greater certainty to unlock decarbonization investments

Canada is a leader at using carbon pricing to reflect the value of reduced emissions, and has made important proposals to develop carbon contracts for differences to improve the certainty and investability of the carbon pricing system. Canada now needs to act with greater urgency on its proposals to deliver that certainty.

One proposal is to use the $15 billion Canada Growth Fund to deliver an initial round of contracts for differences to backstop the value of carbon credits, and perhaps the carbon price. Those contracts are urgently needed in 2023, and should be finalized to help get Canada on track to achieve its 2030 climate target, compete with the US to grow its low-carbon industry and supply chains, and support long-term sustainable jobs and prosperity for Canadians.

Canada also proposed to consult on the design of a broader contracts for difference system. Such a program is also urgently needed. Canada should deliver on this consultation in 2023 and set ambitious timelines to design and implement that system. Canada is taking an important, global leadership role in developing this broad program. And, by launching a limited set of contracts prior to developing the broad program, is starting off on the right foot with

a learn by doing approach that balances the urgency to reduce Canada’s emissions, compete with the US for investments, and make measured bets then scale and adapt innovative policies. Canada should also commit to knowledge sharing about details of these contracts, which projects they are with, program performance reporting and lessons learned, so Canadians and other jurisdictions can learn and benefit from Canada’s leadership.

Since Canada’s carbon pricing system is a combination of federal, provincial and territorial policies, Canada should engage with the provinces and territories as it designs contracts for differences. Doing so recognizes their shared stakes in: reducing emissions; attracting investment and sustainable jobs; and sound fiscal policy. Making existing carbon pricing policies more investable is more fiscally prudent than offering new funding or tax breaks.

Recommended Investment:

The Canada Growth Fund should urgently execute on its mandate to “help transform and grow Canada’s economy at speed and scale on the path to net-zero” using its current $15 billion budget, with an initial round of contracts for differences signed in 2023. Contracts should primarily focus on difficult to decarbonize sectors with low stranded asset risk, and use competitive or targeted contract calls to drive cost-efficient emissions reductions across the economy. The program should report on its role in subsidizing sectors, program costs and revenues, lessons learned, contract details, and emissions reduction achieved. To enable these contracts, federal and provincial carbon pricing systems must make credit prices public information, their stringency tightening rates must predictably align with Canada’s commitment to net-zero emissions by 2050, and transparent processes are needed to monitor and make recommendations on credit market management, such as a national carbon credits exchange commission. [ECCC, FIN]

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Climate and biodiversity conditions on federal spending

Canada needs a whole-of-government approach to ensure major government regulation, policy, and spending align with its targets for emissions reductions and halting and reversing biodiversity loss, as well as the National Adaptation Strategy. It is critical to ensure that major federal budget allocations are leveraged as effectively as possible, and that funding recipients advance Canada’s climate change mitigation, nature and adaptation objectives.

Application of ambitious climate and biodiversity conditions to funds would strengthen the country’s net-zero, adaptation and nature-positive governance by helping mainstream priorities across programs and departments, including large federal mechanisms like the Canada Infrastructure Bank and the Canada Growth Fund. Failure to apply conditions could result in inefficient or risky spending (e.g., on unproven or costly solutions), creating opportunity costs for climate spending.

All departments have important roles in implementing these conditions. In our view, these conditions are of particular importance for PCO, PMO, ISED, NRCan, FIN, TC, DFO, and CIB, given these actors’ roles in moving Canada’s public and private sectors towards net-zero and nature-positive outcomes, and improving resilience.

Recommendations:

  1. Implement an Integrated Climate and Biodiversity Lens to evaluate Budget 2024 proposals. Budget 2024 should publish a summary of the Budget’s overall climate and biodiversity impact, using transparent methodologies and measurable indicators, including assessment against 1.5-degree scenarios. Further, this Integrated Climate and Nature Lens should be part of the Impacts Reports included in federal budgets. [PCO, FIN, ECCC]
  2. Align spending by large mechanisms, programs, and budgets41 with 1.5-degree and nature-positive scenarios through robust criteria and conditions. [All departments]
    • Make access to major funding, across all streams and programs, conditional on commitments by private and public recipients to achieve Canada’s climate and nature goals.
    • For climate-related funding, recipients must have: (1) 2030 and 2050 emissions- reduction targets consistent with or exceeding Canada’s goals; (2) plans to meet these targets informed by the High- Level Expert Group on the Net-Zero Emissions Commitments of Non-State Entities recommendation that net-zero commitments align with 1.5°C pathways with no or limited overshoot; and (3) robust climate and nature-related risk disclosure.
      • For electricity, require provinces to commit to systematic improvements to their electricity systems, including mandating public electricity utilities to have net-zero plans (see Advancing a zero-emissions electricity grid based on renewables, earlier in this document).
      • For adaptation funding granted to municipalities, provinces and territories that have an adaptation plan or that wish to develop one, plans must be aligned with 1.5-degree scenarios (see Ramping up core adaptation investments to increase resiliency in the face of climate change, later in this document).
    • For nature-related funding, recipients must have goals and plans aligned with Canada’s goal of halting and reversing biodiversity loss by 2030, including by protecting at least 30% of land and ocean by 2030, and supporting Indigenous-led conservation;
    • Funding should come with penalties and corrective actions if conditions are not met (e.g., grants are converted into loans if the commitment to net-zero has not been developed within a reasonable time period).
    • Ensure selection criteria maximize climate- and nature-positive outcomes and are based on:
      • The largest net GHG reduction per dollar invested;
      • Focus on proven solutions to achieve near-term reductions to reach Canada’s 2030 target versus longer-term emerging technologies;
      • Use of best-in-class technology for industrial emissions reduction projects;
      • Projects that support long-term and net-zero-consistent job creation and fully integrate sustainable transition elements (i.e., retraining, skill development, community-benefits agreements), with a focus on equity-deserving communities;
      • For infrastructure funding, for example, funding for linear infrastructure (e.g., highways and railways) should require the incorporation of wildlife mitigation considerations and measures (e.g., underpasses, overpasses, fencing);
      • Bilateral Nature Agreements providing federal nature funding to provinces and territories should require commitment to measurable and specific additional conservation outcomes that meet agreed- to standards and make a significant contribution to the 30% land protection targets, including Indigenous-led conservation initiatives.
  3. Support transparency and accountability for climate and nature outcomes with robust reporting requirements for programs and participants.
    • Details of funding agreements should be made public, and recipients should have an obligation to disclose information on actual investments made and measurable outcomes achieved, especially in terms of GHG reductions, protection and/or restoration of nature, and job creation/retention;
    • The government should provide timely, public, monitoring and evaluation reports that assess whether funds are contributing to net-zero and nature-related goals, and reaching the right types of applicants and projects.
  4. Ensure that Indigenous authority is upheld, including through the integration of free, prior and informed consent and adherence to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) in project- information disclosure and Nation-to-Nation funding arrangements (e.g., through direct transfers to Indigenous recipients).
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Transforming Canada’s economy through a net-zero industrial policy

As the world transforms and moves towards net-zero, some countries are taking the lead in developing domestic industries that will support future consumption needs that are compatible with 1.5-degrees while also strengthening energy and supply chain security.

Canada has a lot at stake due to the high carbon intensity of its primary exports: crude oil and bitumen. As Canada’s Net-Zero Advisory Board put it, “A net-zero industrial policy would provide certainty about the transformations required, increase accountability in the transition to net-zero, ensure Canadians benefit from emerging global economic opportunities, reduce risks in an uncertain world, and build coalitions of support for climate action.” But Canada’s provinces and territories are diverse, so net-zero industrial policy should be too.

Partly in response to the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act, Canada’s Budget 2023 made significant investments in climate mitigation and industrial policy. The federal government should do more to use its substantial procurement spending to buy clean materials and act on its Greening Government Strategy objectives by 2025. These include procuring 100% clean electricity for government properties and structural materials with 30% lower embodied carbon. Investments that improve the government’s ability to buy clean would help to create low-carbon product markets and industries in Canada while having limited impact on Canada’s fiscal framework. Products from agriculture and forestry should be included. These are working, land-based industries that, with the right practices, have the potential to sequester carbon, and grow in a net-zero world.

Consistent with advice from the Buy Clean Industry Alliance, the Green Budget Coalition recommends $845 million over five years, starting in 2023-24, including:

  • $500 million over five years for the Clean Infrastructure Incentive Fund to activate the Canadian market for commercially-viable low-carbon building materials and practices by offsetting the incremental costs of using commercially viable low-carbon materials and practices in public infrastructure. [INFC]
  • $15 million over five years to build capacity across the broader public sector to increase adoption of Buy Clean practices, develop tools to increase capacity and education on Buy Clean and federal support staff to provide training. [NRCan, PSPC, ISED]
  • $300 million over five years to invest
    in Canadian innovation to decarbonize industry, ensure governments are ready to procure emerging technology, develop, test, demonstrate and deploy pre-commercial and innovative low-carbon building materials. [NRCan, ISED]
  • $30 million over five years to fund non-profit and non-partisan organizations to design and host inclusive, well-informed, and healthy conversations on energy and climate. [NRCan, ECCC]
  • Deploy a Futures Fund for regional economic development agencies to help design regional- specific industrial policies that align with national-level policy. [ISED, NRCan]

Consistent with advice from the Net-Zero Advisory Body, the Green Budget Coalition recommends improved real-time reporting on: Canada’s emissions data, modeling, and climate risk assessments; impacts of major government spending on Canada’s climate goals; and performance metrics important to a robust net-zero aligned sustainable jobs plan. [ECCC, NRCan, ISED, CER, CCEI]

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Sustainable agriculture

Canada’s agriculture and agri-food is a key economic sector, but faces particular challenges from both climatic and non-climatic stressors. Producers across Canada are experiencing the effects of climate change with more frequent and severe droughts, floods, and storms. They are also affected by global geopolitical challenges, including market disruptions and high costs. With the global demand for food expected to grow 60% by 2050, ensuring Canadian agriculture is well positioned to meet these challenges in an environmentally sustainable fashion must be a collective priority. The Sustainable Agriculture Strategy currently being developed by Agriculture and Agri Food Canada in collaboration with sector stakeholders can play a key role in addressing these challenges. To be successful, the Strategy must be adequately resourced, and look beyond the farm gate to accelerate and scale the implementation of climate-smart and nature-positive practices, tools, technologies, and innovations across agri-food value chains.

The Green Budget Coalition envisions a future in which Canada is a leader in sustainable and innovative agriculture with a resilient and diversified food system. To achieve this, collaboration at all levels of government and with the private sector is essential. Outlined below are key recommendations for investments that are aimed at helping producers diversify their income by advancing or incentivizing stewardship activities that produce enhanced environmental benefits.

Total Recommended Investment:
$4.5 billion over five years, followed by $134 million per year, ongoing, as follows:

Avoided land conversion and habitat retention

Conversion of threatened ecosystems (e.g., wetlands, grasslands, and forested areas)
in productive and sustainable farmland, whether due to urban development or other significant agricultural land use changes, is a net loss for habitat preservation. In Canada, we have lost approximately 80-85% of native grasslands and approximately 70% of wetlands in southern areas of Canada and up to 95% in densely populated areas. Conversion, loss, and degradation of these ecosystems reduces their ability to support biodiversity and threatens to reduce critical services such as carbon storage, nutrient cycling, forage production, water storage, pollination, water quality, as well as water supply and management. Preventing the disturbance or conversion of grasslands alone can mitigate 12.4 MT of carbon emissions in Canada.

Through the resources and habitats they support—soils, prairies and pastures, rivers and streams, forests and woodlots, fauna and flora—agricultural lands provide tremendous ecological goods and services and offer producers an opportunity to participate in efforts for climate change mitigation and adaptation as well as efforts to halt and reverse biodiversity loss. However, each year, Canada loses around 60,000 acres of prime farmland to urban expansion and has experienced a 192% price increase in the past 20 years. The increasing costs of land has exacerbated pressures for an aging agricultural community to sell land to real estate or industrial developers for a large profit. In addition, it has made accessing land increasingly difficult for young farmers. Canadian producers will need to employ sustainable intensification, an effort to increase yields with fewer inputs and without expanding land use. The Royal Bank of Canada estimates that “we can avoid 20MT of emissions by preventing land use change between now and 2050.”

National Land Use Strategy

Recommendation: With the engagement of provinces, territories, and Indigenous peoples, develop and implement a comprehensive National Land Use Strategy that strikes a balance between environmental protection, agricultural production, and urban expansion and limits conversion of prime agricultural lands, grasslands, wetlands, and forested areas.

$25 million over three years, with option for renewal [AAFC, NRCan, ECCC]

Agricultural habitat incentive programs

Recommendation: Provide financial incentives and programs for producers to de-risk the uptake of innovative approaches that support the retention of agricultural habitat:

  • Reinstate funding for a National Perennial Forage Conversion Program33 aimed at field-scale conversion by enhancing cropped land with interspersed productive cropland and perennial cover. $500 million over five years [AAFC]
  • Maximize the economic and environmental return of marginal land using precision/smart agriculture technology and implementing strategic and financial incentives for producers to convert marginal areas from annual crop production to natural infrastructure and features that provide a variety of ecosystem services. $500 million over five years [AAFC]
  • Provide financial incentives to producers for the avoided conversion of native and tame grasslands, wetlands, and forested areas which sequester carbon and provide biodiversity and other ecosystem services. $1 billion over five years [AAFC]
  • Develop and implement an agri-gift program in collaboration with all levels of government to facilitate agricultural lands’ protection, especially in densely- populated regions where urban expansion is high. Integrate a cross-compliance principle to ascertain preserved lands are to be cultivated through best management practices for soil health. [AAFC, FIN]
  • Develop and implement a fund to support access to agricultural lands for the farming community, accessible to farm businesses and agricultural land trusts. $200 million over five years, then $25 million per year, ongoing [AAFC in partnership with CRA]

Improve environmental, climate, and socio-economic data collection and dissemination

Data and carbon accounting

Recommendation: Harmonize data across government departments and improve systems for measuring, reporting, and verifying greenhouse gas emissions across agricultural landscapes to better inform the National Inventory Report, agricultural policy-making and programs, and decisions across agriculture and agri-food value chains.

$50 million over three years, then $2 million per year, ongoing [AAFC, ECCC, StatCan]

  • Fund, coordinate and scale research programs to develop refined, regionally- specific emission factors so that Canada can more accurately account for agricultural natural climate solutions impacts on GHG sources and sinks;
  • Develop an accessible and integrated toolkit to support producers’ efforts to measure and monitor GHG sources and sinks, while ensuring comprehensive collection and data channeling into the national inventory (e.g., integrate findings from remote sensing, computed models and soil samples);
  • Develop a centralized platform to improve data sharing and utilization between government agencies (notably StatCan, AAFC and ECCC), crop insurance schemes, and address data gaps and discrepancies; and
  • Scale and accelerate investment in agricultural natural climate solutions science, innovation and measurement systems, including data collection and integration on adoption and penetration rates of climate smart practice adoption.

Agricultural producers’ adoption of natural climate solutions is not being effectively reported within Canada’s National Inventory Report. Improved data integration, collection, management and quantification methodologies will help ensure that policies and programs aimed at encouraging natural climate solutions adoption are informed by accurate and accessible data. These features would also improve producers’ understanding of the impacts of a given practice and their contributions to national GHG emission targets. Lastly, improving data collection and GHG quantification methodologies that inform the inventory would stimulate efforts to develop more robust baseline agri- environmental indicators, such as soil organic carbon (SOC) levels and nitrous oxide emissions, that are needed to scale the agriculture sector’s participation in ecosystem service markets and programs. See also recommendation on Accurate data, research, information, and knowledge for improved evidence-based monitoring and decision making, later in this document.

Research to quantify economic, environmental, social benefits

Recommendation: Increase investments in research that quantifies the economic, environmental, and social benefits of agricultural practices to refine best management practices (BMP).

$100 million over five years, followed by $20 million per year, ongoing [AAFC, SSHRC, NSERC]

  • Ensure that the monitoring and evaluation results and return on investments from government programs, such as the Agriculture Climate Solutions program, are shared with producers and policymakers.
  • Expand and strengthen the Living Labs program, with a heightened emphasis on:
    • Informing regional adoption and national reporting with improved on-farm research and data collection.
    • Developing and deploying education and researcher programs.
  • Improve the transparency of public data to identify and eliminate counter- productive incentives and subsidies for activities that directly or indirectly cause environmental harm. See also Aligning policies and investments with halting and reversing biodiversity loss by 2030, later in this document.

Conducting complementary research to determine the return on investment needed and behavioural considerations involved in the adoption of best management practices (i.e., the incentive value at which farmers will enroll in the best management practice) will support the optimization of future investments in agri-environmental programming. Investing in this will have a variety of benefits including quantifying carbon sequestration benefits from best management practices, ensuring that investments and efforts in environmental programming are maximized, and supporting improved decision-making for operators.

Valuing ecological services

Recommendation: Facilitate the development of a market-based system for valuing ecological services derived from the agricultural sector, to bring value to Canadians and transparency to international food consumers.

$25 million over three years [AAFC]

  • Allocate start-up funding to facilitate the development of the on-farm based EG&S market that would enable credible claims and investments to improve overall biodiversity, increase sector resilience, and optimize future investments in agri-environmental programming.

Canada is rich in ecological goods and services, which is advantageous in marketing sustainable products. However, no marketplace exists that provides security to Canadian companies to make investments with an assured outcome. Establishing a Canadian standard for the production and trade of ecological services could provide an economic advantage to those farmers and ranchers producing superior environmental value and could also help ensure that investments intended to produce a desired environmental state actually produce that outcome.

Accelerate and augment the implementation of climate- smart and nature-positive practices, technologies, and innovations

Tools, technical assistance, and knowledge transfer

Recommendation: Increase investment in tools, technical assistance, and knowledge transfer to encourage and enable producers to accelerate the adoption of best management practices that will improve productivity, generate new income streams, educate/encourage nature-positive practices, and improve on-farm climate resilience.

$500 million over five years [AAFC]

  • Expand extension programs to introduce practices, tools, and technologies that assist and incentivize producers;
  • Fund 1,000 new extension service agents to support sustainable practices;
  • Improve and expand access to resources, training, and education for technical assistance providers to adopt nature-based solutions;
  • Develop a training and certification program for technical assistance providers to better connect producers to incentives for adopting nature-based solutions and advise on the associated opportunities and risks (e.g., supply chain interventions);
  • Enhance, support, and expand upon farmer-to-farmer and peer-to-peer learning opportunities;
  • Top up the Agriculture Clean Technology Fund to help producers reduce emissions by improving energy efficiency, fuel switch, and electrify farms; and
  • Ensure that best management practices engage and encourage full-spectrum participation, are fiscally sound and financially attractive to large-scale farms and agri-businesses that exert a massive influence on the landscape and smaller operations alike.

For Canada to sustainably intensify production and drive broader food system outcomes by improving food security, adapting to climate change and managing demands on limited natural resources, it is important that producers are encouraged and enabled to adopt and augment climate-smart and nature-positive practices and technologies.

Soil health

Recommendation: Prioritize the resilience, productivity, and carbon storage capacity of Canada’s soils.

$6 million over three years to develop a Soil Health Strategy, to grow over time ($1 million in 2024-25, $2 million in 2025-26, and $3 million in 2026-27) [AAFC]

  • Develop and implement a Pan-Canadian Soil Health Strategy as part of the Sustainable Agriculture Strategy that will enable farmers to access information and financial resources needed to improve soil practices; and
  • Ensure that support is available to producers that want to test, adopt, and measure best management practices such as organic amendments, diverse crop rotations, conservation buffers, soil compaction prevention, and integrated pest management.

Soils are the basis for agricultural production in Canada and are important for resilience, productivity, and carbon storage capacity. The protection and regeneration of soils has been identified as a key action in a suite of recent federal announcements (e.g., Guelph Statement, On Farm Climate Action Fund, Agricultural Climate Solutions, Emissions Reduction Plan, and the Sustainable Agriculture Strategy). The adoption of soil management practices such as reduced tillage, diverse crop rotations, proper maintenance of soil nutrients, inclusion of cover crops and/or perennials in rotation, and modified grazing practices can make meaningful contributions towards Canada’s climate change and biodiversity commitments. Healthy Canadian soils will ensure productivity, profitability, and resilience in food production.

Business Risk Management (BRM)

Recommendation: Ensure that Business Risk Management (BRM) programs integrate climate risk management, environmental practices, and climate readiness. Any changes to the federally funded business risk management program are recommended to be additive and incentive-based.

$1.08 billion over five years followed by $87 million per year, ongoing

  • Create a specialized Climate Risk Reduction Fund to provide voluntary incentives such as premium discounts or enhanced payouts for producers that adopt best management practices. $435 million over five years, then $87 million per year, ongoing [AAFC]
  • Develop a program to pilot innovations in business risk management design including encouraging the adoption of specific best management practices. $10 million over three years [AAFC]
  • Enhancing the transparency and accessibility of data on the effectiveness of business risk management programs, including performance measures and reporting, working towards a quantification of the risk reduction benefits of best management practices adoption and preventive measures. $5 million over five years [AAFC, StatCan]
  • Establish early warning signs (e.g., drought, floods, etc.) and related recommendations for regionally-appropriate best management practices in collaboration with provinces and territories. $280 million over three years [AAFC]
  • Integrate Livestock Price Insurance as part of the AgriInsurance program and subsidize the cost shared premium to encourage uptake, an amount shared between the federal and provincial governments. $350 million for five years [AAFC]

The costs of business risk management programs are increasing due to the significant risks climate change poses to farm operations. In contrast to similar programs elsewhere, business risk management programs in Canada do not yet compensate for measures taken by producers to mitigate these risks through adaptive practices such as environmental best management practices. While business risk management programmes have been primarily aimed at income stabilization, they also offer a means to reward new practices that enhance medium and long-term climate resilience and produce positive agri-environmental outcomes.

Support a Sustainable Agricultural Value Chains Initiative

Recommendation: Launch three to five farmer-centric multi-stakeholder collaborations to accelerate the uptake of beneficial management practices at a regional scale, while driving better outcomes for the sector as a whole.

$550 million over five years for five pilot projects [AAFC, ISED]

Long-term sustainability relies on new approaches that stimulate large-scale, transformative change by linking on-farm practices with those beyond the farm gate with the greatest promise to return value to farm level.

A Sustainable Value Chains Initiative would align public incentives with market-based approaches through a series of farmer-centric, multi-stakeholder collaborations tailored to the needs and realities of context-specific value chains, providing solutions for producers in four key areas: finance to de-risk the uptake of new practices; peer-to-peer learning and extension; improved data collection and dissemination; and verified sustainability performance standards.

Building on the model set by the U.S. Climate Smart Commodities Partnership, the Sustainable Agricultural Value Chains Initiative would stimulate partnerships and collaborations, enabling Canada’s agri-food sector to navigate emerging trends, and helping markets to respond to climate-smart choices by actors along agri-food supply chains while driving progress towards Canada’s climate, productivity, and sustainability goals.

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