Question Period Note: Climate Lens

Overview of Infrastructure Canada’s Climate Lens, a tool to support the consideration of climate impacts into the design of infrastructure projects.

• In 2018, we introduced the Climate Lens, a key tool for raising awareness and assessing the climate impacts of infrastructure projects. It applies to all Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program (ICIP) projects above $10 million and the Disaster Mitigation and Adaptation Fund (DMAF) and includes both mitigation and resilience components.

• Last year, we made the climate lens more user-friendly, reducing the administrative burden and encouraging improved upstream choices by project planners, designers and decision-makers.

• The Climate Lens also supports Infrastructure Canada in measuring its contribution towards the Government’s overarching climate goal of getting Canada to net-zero by 2050.

• On June 1, 2018, the Minister of Infrastructure and Communities announced that, as part of the Investing in Canada plan, applicants seeking federal funding for new major public infrastructure projects were asked to undertake an assessment, the Climate Lens, to determine how their projects will contribute to or reduce greenhouse gases, and to consider climate change risks, and risk mitigation measures in the location, design, and planned operation of a project.

• The Climate Lens helps infrastructure owners design better projects by assessing their opportunities to reduce carbon emissions and identify when they should be adapting project proposals to better withstand impacts of climate change (e.g., severe weather, floods, sea-level rise, etc.).

• The Climate Lens assessment is a requirement of the Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program integrated bilateral agreements which were signed between Infrastructure Canada and the provinces and territories. It applies to projects with a total estimated cost of over $10 million, as well as any project that deals with climate change resilience or greenhouse gas mitigation regardless of cost. The Lens also applies to all projects under the Disaster Mitigation and Adaptation Fund.

• For projects submitted under the climate mitigation and adaptation sub-streams of the green infrastructure stream, the results from the Climate Lens are taken into consideration during the approvals process. The results of the assessment for all the other streams are intended to provide information about the climate impacts of infrastructure projects and to influence their planning, design and operation to take climate considerations into account.

• The Climate Lens underwent revisions last year based on stakeholder feedback and lessons learned. The latest version, Climate Lens 2.0, simplifies the completion process while allowing Applicants to evaluate GHG emissions and resilience to the impacts of climate change early in the planning process. Infrastructure Canada engages regularly with stakeholders including through a recent comprehensive stakeholder engagement exercise with Stratos.

• The Climate Lens has been developed in close collaboration with Environment and Climate Change Canada, as well as engagement with provinces and territories, the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, industry, and environmental stakeholders.

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