Equity-driven best practices in climate adaptation guide
Date
2024
Authors
Guzman Skotnitsky, Sabrina
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Abstract
The purpose of this guide is to review existing climate adaptation plans to a) identify gaps in addressing the needs of vulnerable populations, and b) identify best practices of integrating dimensions of equity in climate adaptions plans at the municipal level. The research questions include: 1. How can equity be effectively embedded in municipal climate adaptation planning and implementation? 2. How can best practices from other jurisdictions be replicated or tailored for the city of Victoria?
In this guide, climate adaptation is defined as the process of adjustment to current and anticipated climate change impacts and associated effects to minimize harm to human and natural systems, and capture benefits (IPCC, 2023). Canada’s National Adaptation Plan asserts that adaptation involves everyone, in all sectors of society, “protecting each other and the places we value... ensuring that we are all better able to prevent, prepare, respond, and recover from climate impacts today and in years to come” (Environment and Climate Change Canada, 2024, 1). This establishes that although governments at all levels are expected to lead on climate adaptation, it is a whole-of-society responsibility. Climate change vulnerability describes how intensely people, assets and systems are likely to be affected by climate change and is a “function of compounding risks (i.e. conflicts, natural disasters, pandemics) and intersecting axes of social differences (i.e. gender, racial, socioeconomic inequalities) which can coexist and aggravate each other” (Amorim-Maia et al., 2022, 7). There are multiple factors that contribute to vulnerability, including socioeconomic status and geographical location; for example, living near a shoreline where sea level is rising and not having the financial or physical ability to move.
In the city of Victoria vulnerable populations include the elderly, those with chronic medical conditions, young children, those who are insufficiently or unhoused, low-income households, Black, Indigenous and People of Colour, (BIPOC) and two-spirit, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer individuals (2SLGBTQ+) (Signer, Formosa and Seal-Jones, 2023, 120). Newcomers to Canada, especially those with English as a second or tertiary language, are also considered vulnerable due to greater barriers in accessing resources and decision-making processes, and other forms of discrimination. Renters, although they are less vulnerable than those who are unhoused, can experience housing precarity and may “have limited resources to control changes to their homes to reduce the impacts of climate change, such as cooling systems, air filtration, and insulation” (Laurent et al., 2022, 7). As 61% of residents in Victoria rent their homes, this is another important factor when considering vulnerability and adaptive capacity (City of Victoria, n.d.)
Equitable climate adaptation aims to reduce the vulnerability and increase the resilience of everyone, particularly marginalized people who currently have the least capacity to adapt due to lack of resources and exclusion from decision-making processes. This is what is referred to as low adaptive capacity. High adaptive capacity is associated with high resilience, a term that often appears in climate policies, research and discourse, and is often used interchangeably with adaptation (although there are important distinctions). Resilience is multi-layered, and can refer to people (individuals, families, communities), assets (buildings, powerlines, roads, community centres etc.), and systems (natural, economic, social, political etc.). The United Nations Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction defines resilience as the ability of people, assets and systems to predict, react, adapt and recover from the effects of climate change. When there is high resilience, they can do so in a timely, efficient and equitable way, that not only preserves basic structures’ conditions and functions, but also restores and enhances them (UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, 2015). This guide is concerned with physical, social and emotional components of climate resilience, ensuring that the burdens and benefits associated with climate change are equitably distributed, and harms are mitigated as much as possible.
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Keywords
climate, equity, best practices, climate adaptation, Sustainability Scholars Program