Climate test to help fight climate change

Last updated December 15, 2021
Reading time: 2 min

The city has adopted a climate test to ensure that all its actions and operations contribute to the fight against climate change. It is committed to serving as an example in all its decisions in order to achieve carbon neutrality.

What is a climate test?

The climate test is a new decision support mechanism adopted by the city to ensure that its actions and decisions speed up  the ecological transition. This tool will be used to determine how a new project, policy or decision contributes to our efforts to fight climate change.

In other words, the climate test allows the city to: 

  • Favour best practices.
  • Evaluate the objective and impact of actions so as to optimize efforts to fight climate change.
  • Determine and monitor the city’s efforts to meet GHG reduction targets. 

How the climate test is applied

The climate test is gradually being applied to all the city’s decisions, such as contracts, infrastructure projects and by-laws. We’re starting with new large-scale programs and projects. A city department (and eventually a borough) that proposes a project will be required to estimate its contribution to the city’s climate change targets from the very outset. The more that a project helps the city reduce GHG emissions and  adapt to climate change, the greater its chances of being completed on a priority basis. 

Example 1: An infrastructure project, such as the construction of a viaduct, road or building, will be required to take the climate test. Regarding the construction of a future municipal building, GHG emissions generated by heating systems would be among the key factors taken into account. The climate test, in other words, would favour heating systems that emit smaller quantities of GHGs or none at all. 

Example 2: A major urban development project must be submitted to the climate test, based on the adaptation measures it includes. For a project planned in an area that is more vulnerable to heat waves, an approach geared to preserving trees on the work site would be favoured. Such an approach would also make it possible to avoid uprooting and replanting vegetation.