Canada’s first climate adaptation strategy, to be unveiled today, will commit the federal government to new building guidelines and standards in areas prone to floods and wildfires.
Environment and Climate Change Canada will unveil the strategy, which has been in the works for almost two years, in Prince Edward Island, one of the Atlantic provinces that took the brunt of Hurricane Fiona in September.
The strategy aims to ensure that Canada’s economy and people are prepared to deal with the worst impacts of climate change. The strategy document includes goals, but the purpose of the high-level document is to set the stage for more detailed implementation plans to be rolled out later.
The government will also announce more than $1 billion in new funding commitments for climate change mitigation on Thursday, according to a senior federal government source with knowledge of the strategy who was not authorized to speak.
The funding needed from the public and private sectors to address the impacts of climate change in Canada is estimated at $5.3 billion annuallyaccording to the Insurance Bureau of Canada, a trade association that represents the industry.
Another source said the government will commit to building on climate-resilient building codes. Expect new targets to reduce the impacts of floods, wildfires and extreme heat domes. A summer heat wave in BC killed more than 600 people in 2021.
Firefighters battle to contain a wildfire outside Lytton, BC on July 14, 2022. (Provided by Daniel Mundall)
Efforts to preserve and expand forests and wetlands have been shown to reduce emissions and minimize the impacts of floods and heat waves on urban populations. The government is expected to prioritize investments in these nature-based climate solutions.
Climate change has already had devastating impacts on Canadians. In June 2021, Western Canada experienced a historic heat dome that set a record temperature of 49.6 degrees C in Lytton, BC. A forest first then would tear the community apart.
Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault called Hurricane Fiona in September “the worst hurricane in Canadian history. We’ve never seen anything like it.”
“Lives were lost, and that’s because of climate change,” he added.
Economic analysis shows that the impacts of climate change will be severe, even if the world does not exceed the international goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees C. A recent United Nations report warned that the failure of individual nations to reduce their emissions is “main”. our planet is warming to at least 2.5 degrees, a level considered catastrophic by scientists at the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.”
The Canadian Climate Institute estimates that by 2025, the impact of climate change could reduce economic growth by $25 billion per year. More recently, the Parliamentary Budget Officer estimated that even if the world meets its emissions reduction commitments, Canada’s real GDP will suffer by 5.8% by 2100.