PhD Oral Defense: The evaluation of GHG emissions mitigation strategies on environment and economic development in Canada
PhD Oral Defense of Tingting Wu, Natural Resource Sciences
Climate change has become one of the primary threats of our time. Climate change leads to ecosystem changes, sea level rise, increasing risk of extreme weather, and a substantial reduction in agricultural productivity and food supplies. If no action taken, it is estimated that the direct costs and risks of climate change will be equivalent to losing at least 5% of global GDP each year and the damage from climate change could increase to 20% of GDP per year if a wider range of risks and impacts are taken into account. Therefore, it is important to find effective measures that can help to stop climate change. The most popular measures include deploying cleaner energy sources to replace fossil fuels and placing a carbon price on greenhouse gas emissions. This dissertation aims at assessing the impact of climate change mitigation strategies in Canada. Chapter 2 and 3 analyze the economic and environmental impact of using wood pellets for greenhouse vegetable production in Canada. Chapter 4 investigates the impact of a carbon tax on food prices and food consumption patterns in Canada.