Welcome to the Strategic Assessment of Climate Change website

The Government of Canada is putting in place better rules for major projects, to protect the environment and communities, advance reconciliation with Indigenous peoples, and ensure good projects can go forward, creating good jobs and economic opportunities for middle-class Canadians.

As part of these better rules, Environment and Climate Change Canada developed the strategic assessment of climate change.

The strategic assessment of climate change (SACC) will enable consistent, predictable, efficient and transparent consideration of climate change throughout the impact assessment process. It describes the greenhouse gas and climate change information that project proponents need to submit at each phase of a federal impact assessment and requires proponents of projects with a lifetime beyond 2050 to provide a credible plan that describes how the project will achieve net zero emissions by 2050. It also explains how the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada or lifecycle regulators, with support from expert federal authorities, will review, comment on and complement the climate change information provided by proponents.

The SACC was deemed a strategic assessment conducted under section 95 of the Impact Assessment Act (IAA). It applies to designated projects under the IAA. The principles and objectives underlying the SACC will be built into guidance for the review of non-designated projects on federal lands and outside Canada under the IAA. Guidance for projects regulated by the Canada Energy Regulator will similarly consider the principles and objectives of the SACC.

The SACC may also apply to environmental reviews by other federal lifecycle regulators, and be used in regional assessments.

Environment and Climate Change Canada plans to review and update the SACC every 5 years.

An HTML version of the strategic assessment of climate change — Revised October 2020 is available here.

This version provides clarifications on avoided domestic GHG emissions (Section 3.1.1), offset credits (Section 3.1.1) and the credible plan to reach net zero by 2050 (Section 5.3).

Context

In July 2020, the Government published the strategic assessment of climate change. Please note a revised version was published in October 2020.

In August 2019, the Government published the draft strategic assessment of climate change.

In March 2019, Terms of Reference were released that explain how the Strategic Assessment of Climate Change will be conducted.

In July 2018, the Government published a discussion paper: Developing a strategic assessment of climate change to seek initial views on developing the Strategic Assessment of Climate Change.

Environmental and Regulatory Reviews

Learn about the proposed changes to put in place better rules to protect our environment, fish and waterways, and rebuild public trust in how decisions about resource development are made here.

Thank you for your interest and participation in this process!

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