Climate Lens – Frequently Asked Questions

The Climate Lens is a project-level requirement applicable to IHousing, Infrastructure and Communities Canada’s (HICC) Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program (ICIP) and Disaster Mitigation and Adaptation Fund (DMAF). The main goal of the Climate Lens is to raise awareness of climate change risks and greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) impacts associated with projects and encourage improved choices by project planners, designers and decision-makers. The Climate Lens also supports HICC in measuring its progress towards meeting its climate goals.

The Climate Lens has two key sections: GHG Emissions and Mitigation, which looks at the anticipated GHG impact of an infrastructure project; and Climate Resiliency, which examines the risk and resilience of the project to a climate change related disruption or impact. Depending on the program, applicants may be required to complete one or both sections of the Climate Lens.

The Climate Lens is a project-level requirement applicable to HICC’s Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program (ICIP) and Disaster Mitigation and Adaptation Fund (DMAF). Applicants are encouraged to consult with the individual program of interest for further details on the applicability and submission requirements of the Climate Lens. 

Should there be a need to hire outside consultants to conduct the Climate Lens, these costs will be deemed eligible for federal cost-sharing for all projects approved for federal funding.

Costs associated with conducting the Climate Lens are retroactively eligible prior to federal approval if the project is ultimately approved by HICC for funding. Note, for projects under DMAF, costs associated with completing a Climate Lens are only eligible up to 12 months before approval.

If an applicant is using own-force labour to conduct the Climate Lens, these salary costs are not eligible for reimbursement.

The Climate Lens does not need to be validated by a consultant. However, it is the applicant’s responsibility to ensure that the Climate Lens is completed by someone with appropriate qualifications and knowledge of the project, as determined by the applicant. This could be the applicant, the applicant’s design consultant, or another consulting body. If the applicant determines that the needed GHG quantification and/or resilience qualifications are not available on the project team, HICC recommends engaging a qualified professional, such as a professional engineer, GHG accounting professional, or registered professional planner.

If the submitted Climate Lens is found to be incomplete or inconsistent with the Climate Lens General Guidance, the applicant will be asked to rectify the deficiencies or provide further information.

Any changes to the project scope or timeline that occur after the submission of the Climate Lens must be reported to HICC as part of the regular project progress reporting requirements and HICC will advise if a revised Climate Lens will need to be submitted. Only project changes that may impact the GHG emissions estimate or climate risks significantly would trigger the need for a re-assessment or additional information.

Under ICIP, the Climate Lens applies to the following projects:

Table 1

Projects are to be submitted to HICC via the Infrastructure Recipient Information System (IRIS) digital portal (or equivalent), unless otherwise stated in program guidelines.

Applicants from Quebec required to complete a Climate Lens are to follow the guidelines for submission as outlined in their Integrated Bilateral Agreement (for ICIP).

Please refer to Table 1 above to see when the Climate Lens must be submitted. For the majority of projects, the Climate Lens is required to be submitted along with the project application, prior to approval by HICC although this is not required for DMAF.

If information in the Climate Lens assessment is considered incomplete or requires clarification, HICC will follow up with the province or territory and work with the applicant to ensure that the Climate Lens requirements have been met. 

Applicants who indicate GHG emissions reductions but who are unable to provide an estimate in Section 2.3 of the ICIP Climate Lens form and who are not applying to the Green Infrastructure – Climate Change Mitigation sub-stream of the ICIP may submit a rationale for not providing a 2030 GHG reduction estimate. HICC will review the rationale and if accepted, the applicant will be required to provide an estimate before the first federal payment.

Yes, costs for undertaking a Climate Lens for any approved project, even where the Climate Lens is not a requirement, are eligible for cost sharing, unless own-force labour is used.

Applicants submitting a Climate Lens under ICIP should follow the guidance provided in the ICIP Climate Lens General Guidance v 2.1. Applicants may still submit Climate Lens assessments according to previous versions of the Climate Lens Guidance (version 1.0-2.0) if so desired.

Note that ICIP projects from Quebec are to continue to follow the provincial guidelines to GHG quantification as outlined in the Canada-Quebec Integrated Bilateral Agreement.

As an additional tool to assist applicants, HICC has developed sector-specific guidance for calculating GHG emission reductions for certain project types. This guidance is available on HICC’s website. If your project type is not currently supported by HICC’s available sector-specific guidance, you may consider referring to the references noted in Section 2.3 under Section 2.1 of the Step-by-Step Instructions of the Climate Lens General Guidance for support in completing GHG quantification.

Only projects seeking funding under the Green Infrastructure - Climate Change Mitigation sub-stream are expected to demonstrate an overall reduction in emissions. However, the Climate Lens provides an opportunity to describe any low-carbon design choices that are being integrated into a project.

Estimated annual operational GHG emissions reductions represent the potential GHG emissions that will be reduced by the operation of the project compared to an alternate baseline scenario in any given year.

The standard equation to calculate GHG emission reductions is the following:

Baseline Emissions - Project Emissions = GHG Emission Reductions

Where:

The Baseline is the “business as usual” (BAU) scenario or hypothetical reference case against which the GHG performance of the project is measured.

The Project represents the new project applying for funds under Housing, Infrastructure and Communities Canada’s funding programs.

There are many resources available to offer information about best practices, GHG mitigation measures and clean technologies. These include:

• World Resources Institute (WRI)
• BC Climate Action Toolkit
• Canadian Climate Institute
• International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD)
• UNFCCC Clean Development Mechanism Methodologies
• Alberta Offset Protocols
• California Air Resources Board (CARB)
• Climate Action Reserve

There are a variety of resources that can be consulted to help quantify the GHG emissions/reductions from a project. These include:

• ISO 14064: 1-3 standard series
• WRI GHG Protocol
• Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM): Guidebook on Quantifying GHG Reductions at the Project Level
• UNFCCC Clean Development Mechanism Methodologies
• Alberta Offset Protocols
• California Air Resources Board (CARB)
• Climate Action Reserve

Most resources such as the WRI GHG Protocol and FCM Guidebook are available for free at the links above. Those interested in consulting ISO standards may find these available for purchase at the ISO website. Further information can also be found in the Climate Lens General Guidance.

If your project type is not currently supported by HICC’s available sector-specific guidance, you may consider referring to the WRI Protocol , ISO 14064-2, or the Climate Lens General Guidance for additional information on GHG quantification. You can also contact the Climate Lens Policy Team at: climatelens- optiquedeschangementsclimatiques@infc.gc.ca for more guidance on which GHG quantification approach is most suitable for your project.

Given that methodologies for estimating GHG sources and sinks for natural infrastructure projects are still evolving, natural infrastructure components of projects are not required to be quantified in the Climate Lens. Projects consisting entirely of natural infrastructure components are not required to quantify their emission reductions, and can indicate this in Section 2.3 of the ICIP Climate Lens form. As the methodologies and tools for estimating GHG sources and sinks continue to evolve, HICC may re-evaluate this approach.

Quantification of indirect, downstream or upstream emissions such as those associated with embodied carbon in materials or disposal of waste is not required under the Climate Lens. Scope 3 emissions resulting from modal shift in transportation projects should be included, to demonstrate the benefits (emissions reduced) from switching to lower-emitting public transit. All applicants interested in pursuing a more robust analysis are still welcome to assess these elements.

Emissions related to construction activities are not required under Version 2.1 of the Climate Lens. However, applicants may elect to do so where proper methodology is used and can include estimating the emissions from activities such as heavy equipment and tool use, transport of materials and waste, and land-use change. Estimating emissions from construction activities based on the construction cost of a project is typically not sufficiently accurate and is not endorsed by HICC.

A specific level of detail is not prescribed in the General Guidance document. However, both historical climate data and future climate projections (to the year 2100) for a variety of climate variables (e.g., temperature, precipitation, etc.) are available for Canada. The Climate Lens should meaningfully consider both historical climate data and future climate projections for the most relevant climate variables for the region and/or location of planned infrastructure assets over their anticipated lifetime.

When considering the potential impacts related to climate change, a range of future climate projections from low to high GHG emissions scenarios should be considered. Environment and Climate Change Canada provides climate model outputs for three Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs). These RCPs are a set of greenhouse gas emission scenarios that range from a low emission scenario characterized by active mitigation (RCP 2.6), through intermediate (RCP 4.5), to a high emission scenario (RCP 8.5).

You can find a list of resources in the Climate Lens General Guidance to support your understanding of climate data. This includes tools to assess climate risk and links to organizations that can provide access to climate data such as the Canadian Centre for Climate Services (CCCS). The CCCS is the Government of Canada’s authoritative source for climate data and information, and provides a variety of tools and resources to help understand climate data, including direct access to climate data experts for guidance through the CCCS Support Desk. The Support Desk can be reached by phone at 1-833-517-0376, by email at: info.cccs-ccsc@canada.ca, or through the CCCS website.

An exemption from the Climate Lens allows a project to proceed for approval without completing and submitting a Climate Lens assessment to HICC, despite being a project that would normally be subject to the Climate Lens requirement. Since the introduction of Climate Lens v 2.0 in March 2021, exemptions are no longer being granted.

Historically, Climate Lens exemptions were granted for one of three reasons:

1. Guidance was unavailable at the time of application. These projects were approved very early in ICIP before the General Guidance was finalized, and provided climate considerations in a non-standardized form.
2. The community had a limited capacity to undertake the Climate Lens assessment(s). These communities were defined in the Terms and Conditions as communities of under 5,000 people with no tax base.
3. The project had limited ability to affect GHG emissions and/or increase climate resilience.

In March 2021, HICC released a new approach to the Climate Lens for projects under ICIP. The new Climate Lens is a single, accessible tool that encourages projects to consider and communicate opportunities to mitigate GHG emissions and reduce the impacts of climate risks in ways that are applicable to and appropriate for their project type and size. This more flexible approach avoids the need for exemptions.

As a result, HICC will no longer accept requests for exemption from the Climate Lens.

The following table provides an overview of the number of projects that have been granted an exemption from the Climate Lens to date:

Table 2

Note: Values as of February 2023. For further inquiries regarding Climate Lens not addressed here or in the other pages, please contact us at: climatelens-optiquedeschangementsclimatiques@infc.gc.ca.

For applicants to DMAF, considerations of climate resiliency are already integrated into the application process. Projects approved under DMAF are required to submit a GHG mitigation assessment that is compliant with the DMAF Climate Lens Guidance v 2.1 before first federal payment. GHG mitigation assessments completed using the Climate Lens General Guidance v 1.2 for project applications submitted in 2022 or earlier will also be accepted. If you would like a copy of the Climate Lens General Guidance v 1.2 please email the Climate Lens Policy Team at: climatelens-optiquedeschangementsclimatiques@infc.gc.ca.

Applicants submitting projects under the DMAF that are subject to the Climate Lens requirement are to follow the instructions provided in the DMAF Climate Lens Guidance v 2.1, which provides applicants with step by step instructions on how to complete the required GHG Mitigation assessment of the Climate Lens for their project. GHG mitigation assessments completed using the Climate Lens General Guidance v 1.2 will also be accepted. If you would like a copy of the Climate Lens General Guidance v 1.2 please email the Climate Lens Policy Team at: climatelens-optiquedeschangementsclimatiques@infc.gc.ca.

Results of the GHG Mitigation component of the Climate Lens are not directly considered as part of the DMAF application. However, applicants with projects that will result in GHG reduction or other environmental benefits can indicate this as a project co-benefit when submitting their DMAF application. Project co-benefits is a merit criteria and so demonstration that a project will result in GHG reduction or environmental benefits could augment the overall score.

The goal of the Climate Resiliency section of the Climate Lens is to require applicants of infrastructure projects to consider the impacts of climate change on their asset and the broader community it serves and consider measures to achieve enhanced resilience to those impacts.

DMAF has a similar and complementary goal of contributing to the resilience of communities to the impacts of climate change through public infrastructure projects, including natural infrastructure.

• DMAF requires analysis for one primary hazard of concern to the community of interest, but accepts projects addressing multiple climate related hazards.
• DMAF also requires a rigorous hazard risk and resilience assessment for the main hazard(s) of concern to the community. These assessments are consistent with the Climate Lens guiding principles and the ISO 31000 standard on Risk Management.
• The use of reliable scientific data sources is required in a DMAF assessment to substantiate the likelihood of a hazard event and its potential impacts.
• DMAF has also encouraged applicants to take measures to increase the resilience of the asset to the main natural hazard, and provide information in this regard within the application, to demonstrate the capacity of the project to sustain increased community resilience over the lifespan of the asset.

DMAF does not have targets for GHG emissions reductions for its projects.

DMAF projects are not expected to demonstrate a reduction in GHG emissions. However, the Climate Lens provides an opportunity to describe any GHG mitigation measures or low-carbon design choices that are being implemented in the project.