Meeting phosphorus license limits at Winnipeg’s North End sewage treatment plant? Neither difficult nor complicated. Just a simple problem that has become so mired in competing agendas and so obscured by decades of political showmanship that it’s now hard to sort out evidence from ideology.
Crumbling infrastructure, billions of dollars of annual costs, and frequent extreme weather events are just a handful of the disasters spelled out for the country’s future in a landmark report from Natural Resources Canada that says the time has come to brace for impact.
WINNIPEG—Compared to many other countries, Canada is lagging on climate adaptation. The impacts of climate change are already being felt from coast to coast, and the situation will only worsen unless greater steps are taken to prepare for what lies ahead.
A new report from the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), prepared with support from the Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC), indicates that while Canada has a lot of catching up to do, it won’t be starting from scratch—there's even an opportunity for the nation to be a leader in adaptation.
Launching today at a high-level Public Policy Forum event attended by Canadian government officials, representatives from the private sector, and environmental leaders, Toward a National Adaptation Strategy for Canada: Key Insights From Global Peers provides recommendations for the development of Canada's national adaptation strategy (NAS) based on experiences in other countries, as well as what is currently being accomplished at subnational levels.
It offers 13 recommendations for Canada as it develops its strategy, based on an analysis of a dozen policy instruments from 11 different countries, each of which plays a critical role in creating more resilient economies, ecosystems, and communities. This provides a starting point and clear direction that can help the federal government kick-start its NAS.
"Though Canada has some catching up to do on national adaptation planning," says the report’s lead author, Anne Hammill, "the federal government can draw on what has worked internationally to develop an ambitious and inclusive adaptation strategy. Canada has all the pieces we need to become a global leader on building the climate resilience of our communities and ecosystems."
Says Craig Stewart, Vice-President Federal Affairs, IBC: "Canada currently has a national strategy with ambitious, measurable targets for emissions reduction and biodiversity protection. It's time we had a national strategy and targets for protecting Canadians from floods, fires and storms."
All EU Member States now have a national adaptation strategy or plan; adaptation has been mainstreamed into the EU's policies and long-term budget. Canada is still talking about its strategy.
Severe weather events in 2020—one of the warmest years on record—caused CAD 2.4 billion in insured damage in Canada, the fourth highest annual damage on record (IBC, 2021).
As the second biggest country in the world, with 15 eco-zones and 38 million inhabitants distributed very unevenly in urban and rural settings, climate change impacts Canadians in a wide range of ways.
Media contacts:
Vanessa Farquharson
Director, Communications
International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD)
[email protected]
Vanessa Barrasa
Manager Media Relations
Insurance Bureau of Canada
[email protected]
Residents of Northwestern Ontario may see some unfamiliar faces around the Experimental Lakes Area (ELA), come next year.
Most Canadians believe climate change is an urgent crisis and are feeling its impacts already. The federal government will soon develop Canada’s first-ever national adaptation strategy and our experts have ideas to make it effective.
In December 2020, Canada's federal government announced its commitment to developing Canada's first-ever national adaptation strategy (NAS). In doing so, it joined the ranks of numerous countries that have initiated, developed, reviewed, and updated national strategies and plans to reduce the vulnerability of their countries to the impacts of climate change. While recognizing that Canada's NAS will need to be tailored to its unique governance structure and adaptation needs, the federal government can learn from global good practice to design a process that will produce an ambitious and inclusive adaptation strategy-one that protects and prepares Canadians for a changing and increasingly uncertain climate.
Severe weather events in 2020-one of the warmest years on record-caused CAD 2.4 billion in insured damage in Canada, the fourth highest annual damage on record (Insurance Bureau of Canada, 2021).
Countries around the world have taken steps to embed adaptation in policies and decision-making, with 72% of countries having adopted at least one national-level adaptation planning instrument-such as a plan, strategy, policy, or law-while another 9% are in the process of developing one.
Defining institutional arrangements is essential to adaptation action. Clearly establishing roles and responsibilities ensures coordinated action horizontally at the national level as well vertically with sub-national actors.
This report, Toward a National Adaptation Strategy for Canada: Key insights from global peers, outlines some key issues and considerations that can help the federal government kick-start the development of Canada’s NAS.
The aim is to provide context and direction for the process so that the federal government can quickly get started. It reviews the global trends in adaptation planning, summarizes federal adaptation efforts to date, and builds on both to lay out some of key considerations for Canada’s NAS. International experience and good practices identified were drawn from an examination of 12 adaptation policy instruments from 11 countries, in combination with key informant interviews. The policy instruments were assessed in terms of the emphasis on scientific assessments of climate vulnerability and risks, the use of detailed frameworks for prioritizing risks and adaptation solutions, the number of defined adaptation actions, the inclusion of adaptation targets and indicators, references to progress reporting, and the degree to which they addressed social inclusion. The country review revealed that:
Reflecting on the current state of adaptation policies, institutions, and knowledge resources in Canada, along with findings of the international review, the report offers 13 mutually reinforcing considerations divided into four main aspects for Canada as it develops its strategy. These are:
1. Set the stage for a successful NAS development process
2. Include core elements for mobilizing federal action on adaptation
3. Facilitate early and sustained action
4. Position Canada as a leader on adaptation
With these considerations in mind, the federal government can work with other governments and key stakeholders throughout Canada to develop a unified vision and approach to preparing and protecting Canadians against the accelerating impacts of climate change.
A new program in northwestern Ontario could bring up to a dozen young, female scientists, who usually conduct their research on the other side of the globe, to the Experimental Lakes Area (ELA).
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