This report is a literature review of eco-responsibility and eco-conditionality instruments at the scale of Quebec, Canada, as well as several countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the European Union, and a few emerging economies.

In general, the heterogeneous use of these concepts has been observed, particularly in the Canadian provinces and, to a lesser extent, in Quebec. The concept of eco-conditionality, although rarely present in the literature, appears more frequently in Quebec, particularly in the agricultural sector, where it was first applied. Otherwise, eco-responsibility instruments are more widespread, especially those related to environmental criteria. Social criteria are also observed, particularly in business support programs, both in Quebec and internationally, as well as in the tourism sector.

However, the majority of the Quebec programs analyzed show few control or impact evaluation measures after the disbursement of aid, in contrast to several international examples identified, which propose more structured approaches at different scales (local, territorial, national, or international). Several measures and indicators are imprecise, which reveals a difficulty in understanding these concepts, their operationalization, and their effective use for program evaluation.