Climate-SMART: Climate Change - Sustainable Mitigation & Adaptation Risk Toolkit

An extension of GMEF 5248 (Healthy Sustainable Community), this study will result in a detailed local action plan forHalifax Regional Municipality (HRM) to fulfill its Partners for Climate Protection (PCP) commitment. It will address bothmitigation and adaptation opportunities from a cost/benefit perspective, with special consideration given to the long-termsustainability of the measures to be implemented. The action plan will be broad based and will encompass all of HRM’ssignificant corporate assets and activities, as well as those assets and activities within the community-at-large over whichHRM has substantial indirect influence. The study will develop and employ a set of decision support tools for municipalchange management. These tools will provide mechanisms and methodologies for incorporating additional climatechange related information into the municipal decision making process. The use of the planning tools will enable HRM topursue a more integrated municipal approach to climate change management that will result in more fiscally andenvironmentally sustainable planning and risk management decisions in all aspects of municipal asset management.The four tools to be applied are: Cost/Benefit Assessment, Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), Risk ManagementAssessment, and Communications and Outreach. Their application should lead to cost savings in the implementation ofpreventative measures rather than remedial measures to address the impacts of climate change.