CAPG - Clean Nova Scotia Foundation

Municipalities in Nova Scotia have already begun identifying their vulnerability to climate change impactsbut municipal staff have told us (Clean Nova Scotia Foundation) that they lack the staffing, funding.knowledge and/or skills necessary to follow through on their Municipal Climate Change Action Plans(MCCAPS).This project— The Municipal Climate Adaptation Initiative (MCIA)—will use the MCCAPs to engage staffwith responsibility for municipal environmental mandates to identify the most pressing climate changerisks facing their communities and the barriers that have prevented them from addressing those risks.Through a series of workshops, we will guide staff to collaborate with one another to develop concretestrategies to overcome these barriers, and to distill these strategies into municipal action plans with cleartimelines. objectives and outcomes. with the goal af enhancing their capacity to respond to climatechange risks and reducing their vulnerability to these risks.We will also use the workshops to focus on key risks common to coastal communities. in particular theimpacts of sea level rise and extreme weather events. These workshops will include participatoryvulnerability assessments, education. and adaptation planning through the use of regionally-specific toolsthat will support municipalities in developing adaptation strategies as part of the action plans.We wiki create online resources that will be made available to municipalities across Atlantic Canada thatwill provide guidance on identifying and addressing barriers to action. This wild help sustain the drive toaddresslclimate change risks in other coastal communities once the project is completed.Finally. m’unicipalities have told us that they need to have key stakeholders like politicians on board inorder to accomplish adaptation goals. The capstone for this project will be workshops for thesestakeholders to help them understand Why they need to act. and what they can do ta promote and enablethe pursuit of adaptation strategies.The UNUM and QUEST—MELG will disseminate the results of this project throughout their networks. TheNS Department of Energy is developing resources to support municipal capacity to respond to climatechange and will collaborate by sharing relevant resources with the prqect team. The Clean Foundation iscollaborating with the EAC to leverage their expertise in sea-level rise and climate change adaptation.who will be supporting the initiative’s sea-level rise (SLR) focused workshops