Since then, the same methodology has been used to calculate carbon budgets for other cities. These city-specific carbon budgets are an effective way of communicating the urgency of the required emission reductions. In November 2019, the City of Edmonton, released an information brief on Carbon Budgeting and Accounting. This brief outlines that carbon budgeting will be an effective way of communicating the urgent need to reduce emissions. With a carbon budget superimposed over a City’s project emissions, the impact of delaying reductions in emissions becomes very clear. Edmonton’s carbon budget between 2019 and 2050 is 155 Megatonnes. The brief also clearly outlines that if the City continues to operate as it does currently, this carbon budget will be exhausted by 2028. In order to make the reductions required, a carbon accounting framework is recommended. This framework will allow administration and City Council to understand the emissions “costs” associated with any project all the way through the project’s lifecycle. Based on this understanding, projects that are approved will need to have their GHG emissions entered against the carbon budget. In this way, the City is constantly aware of how their decisions are reducing or increasing their carbon budget.

Asset Management

The need to bring climate change information into asset management is key and identified in the City’s Asset Management Policy. The Asset Management Plan 2018-2019 includes a thorough review of climate impacts and risks to City’s assets.

Using a triple bottom line framework and full life-cycle costing are two ways already identified to embed climate change into asset management decisions.

Budget Considerations

A number of municipalities are looking to incorporate climate change considerations into budget documents. Some best practices include the Region of Peel and the City of Burlington.

The Region of Peel undertakes Integrated Budget Planning with the process explicitly identifying climate change as a driver for decision-making. To assist with this integration a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) checklist, which includes climate change considerations, was introduced in 2019 as a guide for staff to determine how budget priorities are enabling CSR. Additionally, Peel has plans to complete a Climate Change Financing Strategy in 2020 to guide how Climate Change action will be resourced, embedding the need for advocacy and securing external funding to mitigate costs to the tax base and utility rate. The Climate Change Financing Strategy will also provide a schedule for Plan action expenditures.

The City of Burlington includes an Environmental Impact section, which includes climate change consideration, on business cases developed for their capital budget. These business cases are similar to the City of Windsor’s budget issues documents.