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Full-Text Articles in Law

The Science, Law, And Politics Of Canada's Pathways To Paris: Introduction To Ubc Law Review's Special Section On Climate Change And Canada, Jason Maclean, Meinhard Doelle, Chris Tollefson Jan 2019

The Science, Law, And Politics Of Canada's Pathways To Paris: Introduction To Ubc Law Review's Special Section On Climate Change And Canada, Jason Maclean, Meinhard Doelle, Chris Tollefson

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

This brief essay introduces two articles comprising a special section of the UBC Law Review on climate change law and policy in Canada.


Social Cost Of Carbon In Environmental Impact Assessment, Meinhard Doelle Jan 2019

Social Cost Of Carbon In Environmental Impact Assessment, Meinhard Doelle

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

While the social cost of carbon (SCC) has played a prominent role in regulatory decision-making in recent years, use in the environmental impact assessment (EIA) realm has been minimal. This article explores potential roles for SCC in EIA. Using Canada’s proposed new federal impact assessment (IA) regime as a basis, the analysis examines how a jurisdiction could employ SCC to integrate climate change considerations into project-level assessment and decision-making. Potential roles are first discussed in relation to the broad purposes of IA, before focusing on key assessment factors such as consideration of economic costs and benefits, cumulative effects, climate change …


From Paris To Projects Clarifying The Implications Of Canada’S Climate Change Mitigation Commitments For The Planning And Assessment Of Projects And Strategic Undertakings (Summary Report), Robert B. Gibson, Karine Peloffy, Daniel Horen Greenford, Meinhard Doelle, H Damon Matthews, Christian Holz, Kiri Staples, Bradley Wiseman, Frédérique Grenier Jan 2019

From Paris To Projects Clarifying The Implications Of Canada’S Climate Change Mitigation Commitments For The Planning And Assessment Of Projects And Strategic Undertakings (Summary Report), Robert B. Gibson, Karine Peloffy, Daniel Horen Greenford, Meinhard Doelle, H Damon Matthews, Christian Holz, Kiri Staples, Bradley Wiseman, Frédérique Grenier

Reports & Public Policy Documents

By signing the Paris Agreement, Canada made a commitment to do our fair share to limit global average temperature rise to “well below 2°C” relative to pre-industrial levels, and to pursue “efforts to limit the increase to 1.5°C.” The federal Impact Assessment Act that is now before Parliament requires consideration of whether assessed undertakings would “hinder or contribute to” meeting Canada’s climate change commitments.

So far, however, Canada has done little to define what the Paris Agreement entails for planning, assessment and decision making on projects and other undertakings with significant implications for meeting the Paris commitments. That leaves a …


From Paris To Projects: Clarifying The Implications Of Canada’S Climate Change Mitigation Commitments For The Planning And Assessment Of Projects And Strategic Undertakings (Full Report), Robert B. Gibson, Karine Peloffy, Daniel Horen Greenford, Meinhard Doelle, H Damon Matthews, Christian Holz, Kiri Staples, Bradley Wiseman, Frédérique Grenier Jan 2019

From Paris To Projects: Clarifying The Implications Of Canada’S Climate Change Mitigation Commitments For The Planning And Assessment Of Projects And Strategic Undertakings (Full Report), Robert B. Gibson, Karine Peloffy, Daniel Horen Greenford, Meinhard Doelle, H Damon Matthews, Christian Holz, Kiri Staples, Bradley Wiseman, Frédérique Grenier

Reports & Public Policy Documents

Canada has signed the Paris Agreement and made other international commitments to doing our fair share of what is needed to keep overall global warming to the Paris Agreement limit of well below 2ºC, and to aim for 1.5ºC, to avoid devastating climate change. However, we have not yet progressed far in translating these commitments into implications for decision making on proposed undertakings with significant implications for meeting those commitments.

Clarifying those implications and determining how best to incorporate them in deliberations and decision making is overdue and now imperative. The federal government’s new Impact Assessment Act, which is now …