Open AccessThe Canadian Environmental Assessment Act and Global Climate Change: Rethinking Significance
Author(s) -
Toby Kruger
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
alberta law review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1925-8356
pISSN - 0002-4821
DOI - 10.29173/alr323
Subject(s) - greenhouse gas , context (archaeology) , climate change , government (linguistics) , process (computing) , environmental planning , environmental resource management , business , political science , public economics , economics , environmental science , computer science , geography , ecology , linguistics , philosophy , archaeology , biology , operating system
Environmental assessments conducted under theCanadian Environmental Assessment Act turn on thekey finding of whether a proposed project is likely tocause significant adverse environmental effects.Despite the importance of “signifcance” in theassessment process, the lack of objective criteria todetermine when the threshold of significant has beenreached in the greenhouse gas emissions context hasmade the process ineffective. This prevents meaningfuljudicial review and the regulatory scheme fromproperly confronting climate change. The articleexamines how significance might be objectified underthe current regulatory and government policyframework, including the possibility of establishingbenchmarks, assessing relative significance bycomparing the proposal to alternatives, and the use ofmitigation strategies.