Discussion Paper on an Environment Outlook for Canada

This research paper, prepared by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) for Environment Canada, outlines a conceptual framework for developing an Environment Outlook for Canada (EOC). It defines an environment outlook as a forward-looking integrated assessment that analyzes environmental change, causes, impacts, and policy responses to support proactive decision-making. The document details the potential scope, products, and governance structures for an EOC, emphasizing the need for a participatory process to ensure the resulting data is salient, credible, and legitimate.

• An environment outlook is distinguished from a traditional state of the environment (SoE) report by its focus on the future, examining medium- to long-term impacts of current trends and policy choices rather than primarily focusing on the past and present.
• For an environmental assessment to influence its audience, it must be perceived as salient (relevant), credible (based on trusted information), and legitimate (considering a variety of actor perspectives), often achieved through the co-production of knowledge.
• The proposed EOC would ideally employ a multi-scalar geographic approach to address different issues; for example, climate change mitigation would be viewed nationally, sea ice on a sub-national basis, and water quality or smog at a local scale.
• Consultants suggest a temporal horizon for the EOC of 20 to 30 years as a compromise that allows for policy implementation and business capital planning, though some issues like climate change may require a look as far as 50 years ahead.
• The document identifies several potential governance models for the EOC, including a federal-led approach or a truly national initiative with distributed ownership across federal, provincial, and territorial governments to increase buy-in.
• Estimated resource requirements for a consultative outlook process are significant; one example provided suggests a need for between $US800–1,000K over 18–24 months, excluding modeling costs.
• The EOC is intended to integrate existing Canadian research and reporting activities, such as the Canadian Energy Outlook and the Canadian Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation Assessment, to provide a holistic national picture.

APA

-1, & Rothman, D. S. (2007). Discussion Paper on an Environment Outlook for Canada. International Institute for Sustainable Development. https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/env_outlook_discussion.pdf

Chicago

-1, and Dale S. Rothman. Discussion Paper on an Environment Outlook for Canada. International Institute for Sustainable Development, 2007. https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/env_outlook_discussion.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=-1 |last2=Rothman |first2=Dale S. |title=Discussion Paper on an Environment Outlook for Canada |publisher=International Institute for Sustainable Development |date=June 2007 |url=https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/env_outlook_discussion.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{12007discussion, author = {-1 and Rothman, Dale S.}, title = {{Discussion Paper on an Environment Outlook for Canada}}, institution = {International Institute for Sustainable Development}, year = {2007}, month = jun, url = {https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/env_outlook_discussion.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }