OTTAWA, ON, Nov. 24, 2022 /CNW/ - Climate Proof Canada congratulates the Government of Canada on the announcement of its first National Adaptation Strategy, Canada's National Adaptation Strategy: Building Resilient Communities and a Strong Economy. Today's announcement represents a bold step forward by delivering a strategy with world-leading targets and clear goals that will drive necessary progress on adapting to the worst impacts of climate change.

The National Adaptation Strategy and corresponding National Action Plan reflect Climate Proof Canada's recommendation to set out a sequence of five-year action plans to address flood, wildfire and extreme heat.

Importantly, the National Adaptation Strategy comes with a critical down payment today to begin delivering on key priorities to increase community resilience and better protect communities against flood, fire and extreme heat. This investment will also help educate many across Canada about the risks they face as a result of climate change. This is a smart investment.

The National Adaptation Strategy takes a whole-of-society approach which is necessary to protecting Canada's communities and the economy. Climate Proof Canada members look forward to continuing to support and strengthen the National Adaptation Strategy and Action Plan, and stand ready to play an active role in working with the federal government to finalize targets.

"The National Adaptation Strategy (NAS) merits accolades. It paints a vivid and realistic picture of evolving challenges presented by climate change. Additionally, aggressive but achievable short-term targets are presented to counter the evolving challenges of flooding, wildfire and extreme heat. The NAS embraces continuous improvement, and it positions climate change as an all-of-society challenge with solutions. The NAS presents a solid platform for Canada to prepare for, and limit the impacts of, extreme weather."   
-       Dr. Blair Feltmate, Intact Centre on Climate Adaptation, University of Waterloo

"Through our work, the Canadian Red Cross has seen the devastating impacts of climate-related disasters or emergencies on individuals, families, and communities in Canada. Recovering from a disaster can take longer, and be more expensive and complex than anticipated. The Canadian Red Cross applauds Ministers Guilbeault, Wilkinson and Blair for their leadership in launching Canada's first-ever National Adaptation Strategy. Targets around setting a national recovery strategy and milestones for recovery for those impacted in Canada, including reducing the length of time people are displaced from their homes, will support a more resilient Canada."
-     Conrad Sauvé, CEO, Canadian Red Cross

 "There is an urgent need to ramp up our efforts to better understand and mitigate climate risk. The initiatives contained in today's announcement, including investment in a powerful tool like the Green Municipal Fund, can help accelerate local adaptation by supporting municipalities across Canada. FCM was proud to work alongside Climate Proof Canada in advocating for some of the critical results we are seeing today."
-       Taneen Rudyk, President, Federation of Canadian Municipalities.

"We welcome the National Adaptation Strategy. Adaptation to climate change is critical to reducing mortality and morbidity from environmental disruptions, the impacts of extreme heat in urban areas and the deterioration of air quality from forest fires. This strategy sets out concrete and common objectives that can guide our collective action over the coming years. In particular, we emphasize the focus on health and wellbeing, and resilient health systems – key elements for a healthy population in a changing climate."
-       Dr. Claudel Pétrin, Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment 

"As an ER doctor and wildfire researcher who works in Canada's far North who was part of the Disaster Reduction and Resilience table for Canada's National Adaptation Strategy, I'm particularly pleased with the explicit goal targeting the mainstreaming of health impacts and benefits into climate change tools and guidelines by 2030. I'm also happy to see a target which aims to have 80% of health regions having implemented evidence-based adaptation measures to protect health from extreme heat by 2026. On the whole, I'm proud of the National Adaptation Strategy and look forward to working with health groups to weave it into curricula, practice, and planning in order to ensure our patients have the opportunity to thrive through the challenges to come."
-       Dr. Courtney Howard, Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment 

"Loss and damage from extreme climate events has been doubling in Canada every 5 to 10 years over the past four decades. The National Adaptation Strategy and Federal Adaptation Action Plan are an important step forward to confront this alarming and unsustainable trend. Most losses from flooding, wildfire, severe wind and other climate extremes are preventable through the application of proven scientific findings."
-     Paul Kovacs, Executive Director of the Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction

"Canada's first National Adaptation Strategy is brave and ambitious. No other country has proposed such a comprehensive suite of adaptation targets. We commend Ministers Bill Blair, Steven Guilbeault and Jonathan Wilkinson and their teams on this significant accomplishment. The elements proposed in this strategy, especially the use of clear risk-reduction goals and outcome-based targets, are truly world-leading and are critical to both the resilience of our country and to the protection of Canadians. The gauntlet is now thrown. The federal government has shown the necessary leadership and rightly expects all of us to step up to help them prioritize and action these elements."
-       Craig Stewart, Vice-President, Climate Change and Federal Issues, Insurance Bureau of Canada

Climate Proof Canada is an unprecedented coalition of insurance industry representatives, disaster relief organizations, municipalities, Indigenous organizations, environmental NGOs and university-based thought leaders. This coalition believes that Canada must prepare for the present and growing effects of climate change through building a more disaster-resilient country.

The Coalition launched in June 2021 and will be active in the years ahead to encourage all orders of government and the private sector to collaborate on climate adaptation and disaster resilience. For more information visit Climate Proof Canada.

Climate Proof Canada Coalition Members

SOURCE Climate Proof Canada