1. Environmental Initiatives
  2. Climate Change
  3. Climate Budget

Climate Budget

What is a Climate Budget?  

A "climate budget" is a governance system that establishes actions the City needs to take in the short-term to achieve the community's long-term GHG target. By integrating the Climate Budget into financial budget decision-making processes, climate and environmental impacts are understood before they occur. It creates a coordinated approach with other budgeting considerations, such as societal impacts, asset management, safety, and economics.

What is a Carbon Budget? 

A “carbon budget”, on the other hand, sets an upper limit based on a long-term target of the amount of CO2e available to emit for a given period. The emissions from all activities expected during that period are estimated to see if they are below the upper limit (the carbon budget) for that period. If the projected emissions exceed the budget for the period, it must be made up in another period to stay within the overall target.

Climate and carbon budgets are becoming more common in cities across Canada and internationally. Canadian examples include Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Toronto, and Montreal. 

Saskatoon’s Climate Budget  

As directed by City Council, Saskatoon considered its first Climate Budget during the 2024-25 Multi-Year Business Plan and Budget deliberations. 

Saskatoon’s Climate Budget identifies the actions required in the short-term to continue progress toward the Low Emissions Community (LEC) Plan and our net-zero targets. The LEC Plan spans a 30-year implementation timeline and the 2024-25 Climate Budget focuses on a two-year window to identify what needs to start now.

The Climate Budget also identifies the gap between current emissions and proposed GHG reduction measures to identify where more progress is needed.

The 2024-2025 Climate Budget also estimated the GHG additions that are expected from major capital projects.

Results: Climate Budget 2024-25  

Projects included in the 2024-2025 Climate Budget are projected to reduce emissions by 20,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalents (tCO2e) per year once fully constructed. Projects with funding (75% of the total) provide other civic benefits such as operational efficiencies, enhanced resiliency, and sound asset management while also contributing to GHG reductions (approximately 1,200 tCO2e at full build-out) and other environmental benefits. Funding for these comes from capital reserves, external funding, and loans.

$64.3M has been estimated for additional climate actions, projected to result in 18,800 tCO2e reductions, but these have not been recommended for funding in this budget cycle.

28 Major Capital Projects are estimated to increase emissions by 15,700 tCO2e compared to the Business-as-Planned projection.

Type of Project # of Projects 2024-2025 Climate Cost Budget GHG Reduction at Build-out (tCO2e) Examples
FUNDED   $217M 1,200  
Quantified GHG Reductions 4 $58.6M 1,200 electric buses, electric ice resurfacer, Archibald Arena renovation, water conservation at spray pads
Non-quantified GHG Reductions 5 $156M N/A Bus Rapid Transit, Active Transportation, park irrigation upgrades, Material Recovery Centre, and landfill gas
Lay the Foundation for GHG Reductions 12 $2.4M N/A Green Power & Cogeneration studies, waste management/reduction programs
UNFUNDED   $64.3M 18,800  
Quantified GHG Reductions 5 $62.3M 18,800 Community energy loan programs, fleet electrification, municipal solar
Non-quantified GHG Reductions 0 $0 N/A N/A
Lay the Foundation for GHG Reductions 6 $2M N/A District energy, solar access, natural area, and food studies/plans, community electric vehicle program
TOTAL   $281.4M 20,000  

 

Next Steps 

The 2024-2025 Climate Budget was considered by City Council during the Business Plan and Budget deliberations in November 2023. 

A new Climate Budget will be created for every future budget cycle.

 

The Costs of Climate Change

 

Climate Budget Principles & Policy

 

The Climate Budget principles are established in Council Policy C03-036:  

  1. Alignment with existing GHG reduction targets and the LEC Plan.  

  1. Integration with financial budgeting system.  

  1. Transparency around how specific emission reduction projects are expected to impact emissions – every funded measure will have GHG projections estimated for it.  

  1. Accountability for the City and each department – the expectation is that every business unit is responsible for our collective goal. Each action will have a department assigned to it for the corresponding financial budget cycle.  

  1. Time-bound to ensure actions start now – implementation plans based on the LEC Plan actions and additional strategies will determine which actions should be implemented and funded for each budget cycle.