UN Climate Change Summit
The Politics of a Global Climate Change Deal
Can the Copenhagen negotiations yield a successor to the Kyoto Protocol? Institute for Research on Public Policy contributor Velma McColl explains that challenges exist at the UN table. She adds that Canadian and American positions in Copenhagen will mostly be aligned but the hard global politics of climate change will bite in 2010, a tricky year in the American energy debate, which will set the tone here in North America and internationally. Read

Updated News from Copenhagen
To illuminate for the public the proceedings at the UN Convention on Climate Change in Copenhagen, the International Institute for Sustainable Development offers daily coverage from the conference including news, pictures and reports. Read

Ottawa Needs Provinces Onside at Copenhagen
Canada’s current climate change policy is fragmented, largely uncoordinated and unlikely to produce cost-effective reductions in greenhouse gases, according to a new study from the Institute for Research on Public Policy. The study argues that real emissions reductions won’t be achieved until Canada undertakes a national policy built around a federal carbon tax. Read

Postpone Copenhagen Treaty?
The most surprising finding from a national survey of Canadians is that the public is hesitant for Canada to sign a Copenhagen-style climate change treaty, claims the Frontier Centre for Public Policy. The authors note that fears of a hampered global economic recovery are feeding this reticence. Read

Foreign Affairs
Experts Convene Online to Discuss Governance Issues Affecting the Americas
The Inter-American Forum on Governance, a series of four e-conferences held this fall, brought leading experts and practitioners together online. Focusing on the Americas, conference topics covered democratic institutions, energy and the environment, human rights and security in Haiti. The series was hosted by Center for International Governance Innovation. Read

Migration and Health: Implications for Development
This paper by the Canadian Foundation for the Americas explores the nexus of health and migration for development, focusing on the experience of Mexican and Jamaican migrant workers across Canada. Read

Where Have All The Women Gone?
As many as 200 million women and girls around the world are demographically “missing,” claims Alison Palmer from the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research. Palmer cites UN figures and categorizes “missing women” as those who should be alive but aren’t. Read

Economy
A Cost-Benefit Analysis of Fiscal Stimulus in OECD Countries
C.D. Howe’s Bev Dahlby evaluates the fiscal stimulus policies of 20 OECD countries within a simple benefit-cost framework. Among his findings: in Canada, to be justifiable on a benefit-cost basis, a fiscal stimulus project that improves consumptive public services must provide at least 73 cents in benefits for every dollar of fiscal stimulus. Read

Public Policy
R&D Spending in Canada to Reach $30 billion
Statistics Canada reports that total spending on research and development in Canada is expected to amount to nearly $30 billion by the end of this year. Spending by the business enterprise sector is expected to rise to $16.1 billion, representing 54% of the total R&D expenditures, while the Post-Secondary Education sector continues to rank in second place. Read

Northern Exposure: Peoples, Powers and Prospects in Canada’s North
The Institute for Research on Public Policy has posted online the concluding chapter of its new book Northern Exposure: Peoples, Powers and Prospects in Canada’s North. The editors note that the Arctic is facing a transformation of epic proportions. Climate change and melting sea ice are transforming our traditional vision of the Arctic as Canada’s northern frontier and its people as guardians of our northern sovereignty. Progressively, the Arctic will find itself at the crossroads of the interplay of international economic and geopolitical interests involving many of the world’s political powers. Read

Canadian Military Spending 2009
The Canadian Center for Policy Alternatives has found that Canada is among the top 15 military spenders in the world, and the 6th largest spender among the 28 members of NATO. The report explains that the recent increases in Canadian military spending has come at the cost of Canada’s ability to contribute to UN peacekeeping operations and its ability to fund non-military contributions to global security and humanitarian action. Read

State of the Inner City
A new report by the Canadian Center for Policy Alternatives scrutinizes poverty in Lord Selkirk Park in Winnipeg, concluding that the creation of educational and employment opportunities is crucial for a prosperous community. Read

News from Canadian Universities
Tropical Birds Waited for Land Crossing Between North and South America
Despite their ability to fly, tropical birds waited until the formation of the land bridge between North and South America to move northward, according to a University of British Columbia study published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Early Edition. Read

Money Changes What We Think is Fair
A study by the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Business shows that when it comes to distributing resources, people's ideas about what's fair change depending on what's being handed out. If it's something that has its own intrinsic value people are more likely to see equal distribution of such items as fair; whereas the exchange of something with a specific value shifts our decisions to a more market-based attitude based on the contributions of each individual. Read