White House Updates Guidance On Climate Change Impact Analysis

On December 18, the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) released updated draft guidance on how and when federal agencies should account for the effects of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and climate change impacts under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). The guidance is available here.
 
Of particular note, the guidance: 

• Characterizes climate change as a global issue exacerbated by a series of small decisions. The guidance uses projected GHG emissions as a proxy for assessing a proposed action's potential climate change impacts. 
  
• Acknowledges that climate change science is "evolving" and calls for agencies to use existing information and science when analyzing climate change impacts of proposed actions. The guidance outlines currently available tools and methodologies for conducting such analyses.