Understanding the need for and implications of climate change based environmental assessment in Canada
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Date
2020
Authors
Scott, Newall
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
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Abstract
Despite the efforts of the Federal Government to create a new Impact
Assessment Act (2019) that included meaningful approaches for assessing the climate
change contributions of projects as part of an environmental assessment, many would
argue that these efforts fell well short. My thesis attempts to understand the factors that
contribute to Canada’s inability to develop and implement an effective climate changebased
approach to environmental assessment, in addition to conceptualizing the best
approaches for including climate change considerations in EA in Canada. To achieve
this, I performed a review of relevant literature and conducted interviews with experts in
fields related to environmental assessment, climate change, law, industry and politics.
Interviews were designed to obtain perspectives on the barriers impeding a successful
climate change approach in EA as well as thoughts on ways current processes could be
improved.
The results of my work indicate that there are significant barriers to achieving a
meaningful climate changed-based EA process that stem from economic and political
considerations, such as embedded economic inertia and the strength of industrial
lobbies. There are also many concerns with how current processes in EA, or lack
thereof, are addressing climate change. Additionally, my data reveals that there are
several ways we can work to improve the consideration of climate in EA in Canada,
such as through a proper strategic assessment of climate considerations that would
answer key questions and provide guidance to industries and practitioners as to how
our project level EA activities contribute to the achievement of our broader climate
change goals in Canada. Additional changes to project assessment, such as
determining the proper context through which project GHG emissions are analyzed and
performing a thorough assessment of project alternatives ‘to’, would also help to
improve the effectiveness of the of EA process in relation to climate considerations.
Description
Keywords
Climate Change, Environmental Assessment
Citation
APA