Highlights:

• Canada’s agriculture sector can play a role in helping Canada achieve its emissions targets. Reducing emissions from agriculture can play an important role in meeting Canada’s 2030 emissions target, but stringent policy will be required with cost implications. However, Canada’s agriculture sector can continue to grow out to 2050 while helping Canada reduce emissions.
• An emissions cap on Canada’s agricultural sector is the most cost-effective policy for achieving emissions reductions. This policy is designed to reduce emissions in the agriculture sector by encouraging adoption of available abatement technologies as well as encouraging a shift away from emissions-intensive animal agriculture towards plant-based agriculture. Of the policies explored in this analysis, this policy is the most efficient at reducing emissions, costing the least per unit of emissions reduced.
• An animal agriculture production limit, which directly targets the production of animals, is more cost efficient than an emissions cap at reducing animal production in Canada.  While implementing an emissions cap on the agricultural sector achieves significant emissions reductions in Canada, it is not as effective at changing how food is produced and consumed in Canada.
• Policy design should consider interactions between the policy and future behavioural changes and consumption patterns. Behavioural changes can play a significant role on the impact of the policies explored in this analysis, amplifying their impact in some cases and reducing it in others.