Climate Change Adaptation and Resilience Strategy

As a follow up to the City of Edmonton’s commitment to developing a Climate Adaptation Plan, it will undertake a climate risk response plan initiative that will identify climate hazards, assess vulnerabilities, and address the impact of climate change. The project will result in a Climate Change Action and Implementation Plan, a renewed municipal policy on climate adaptation and a corporate measure for resiliency. The project will address nine city-themes affected by climate change: economics & finance; agriculture & food; urban ecosystems; transformational adaptation; transportation infrastructure; water supply & sanitation; electricity & communications; built environment; and emergency preparedness. The City will follow the International Council of Local Environmental Initiative’s (ICLEI Canada) Adaptation Methodology as a planning framework and best practices guide for the project. The strategy will be developed with the guidance of an environmental steering committee consisting of internal and external stakeholders, and environmental working group consisting of interdisciplinary experts and sustainability consultants retained for research and public engagement. The working group is responsible for plan development and analysis, engagement with subject matter experts to address technical issues and ensuring that the project is informed by good data and evidence. Regular on-going meetings with City council members will be held throughout the project. Stakeholder consultation is completed through regular meetings of the steering committee and working group (once per month), who are provided background information, current status of the project, and future work requirements. Stakeholders are provided opportunity to comment and provide guidance during the meetings. The Climate Change Adaptation Strategy and Plan will be a community strategy, and will identify risks, vulnerabilities, and adaptation actions for City-owned infrastructure and services, enabling communities to adapt to the climate change in Edmonton. The City has recently completed the research component of the ICLEI methodology, achieving Milestone Two (research) in the program. The current initiative will complete up to Milestone Three (plan) by developing the strategy and plan for adaptation and resilience. Milestones Four (implement) and Five (monitoring) are currently outside the scope of work for this project.