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.
Quotes
"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
About Climate Proof
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
INSURANCE
INDUSTRY
Aon
Aviva
Definity
Desjardins
Canadian Association of
Mutual Insurance Companies
Co-operators
Insurance Brokers'
Association of Canada
Insurance Bureau of
Canada
Intact Financial
Corporation
Property and Casualty
Insurance Compensation Corporation
Sun Life
Financial
TD Insurance
Travelers
Wawanesa
Zurich
Canada
MUNICIPAL
GOVERNMENT
Federation of Canadian
Municipalities
INDIGENOUS
ORGANIZATIONS
Métis National
Council
|
DISASTER RELIEF
ORGANIZATIONS
Canadian Red
Cross
PRIVATE
SECTOR
Canadian Chamber of
Commerce
Forest Products
Association of Canada
Genesis
Resiliency
Surrey Board of
Trade
PROVINCIAL
ORGANIZATIONS
Conservation
Ontario
ENVIRONMENTAL NGOS
AND RESEARCH ORGANIZATIONS
Canadian Association of
Physicians for the Environment
Institute for
Catastrophic Loss Reduction
Intact Centre for
Climate Adaptation
International Institute
for Sustainable Development
Smart Prosperity
Institute
The Pembina
Institute
|
SOURCE Climate Proof Canada