A CALL TO ACTION

RESILIENT INFRASTRUCTURE
Over time, it has become clearer that some degree of climate change is
inevitable and unavoidable, and that climate adaptation is necessary to cope
with the adverse effects of climate change on human and natural systems.
A CALL TO ACTION
The emergence of climate change adaptation in infrastructure planning
by Quentin Chiotti and David Van Vliet
HE 1992 EARTH SUMMIT in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, was a
landmark event that brought together 172 governments, including Canada, and 2,400 representatives
of non-governmental organizations to address global environmental and developmental challenges.
Some readers will recall, with pride, Canada’s leading role in the 1992 Summit. Notable Canadians that participated included: Maurice Strong, the Secretary-General
of the Earth Summit, Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, who
led the Canadian delegation, Elizabeth Dowdeswell, a key
organizer of the Summit, and David Suzuki, a renowned
Canadian environmentalist, scientist and broadcaster.
One of the main outcomes of the Earth Summit was the
adoption of the United Nations Framework Convention
on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Article 2 is the main provision of the UNFCCC that had the ultimate objective of stabilizing greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere
at a level that would prevent dangerous human-caused interference with the Earth’s climate. This level has typically
been cited as the greenhouse gas concentration that would
result in a global mean temperature reaching 2°C above
the historical baseline average (1850-1900), but at the 2015
United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 21), 196
attendees agreed to the Paris Agreement, which promoted
an aspirational target of 1.5°C.
As of 2024, we are approaching a 1.5°C warmer world
and have yet to reach peak greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Globally we may have already reached the point
where we are destined to fail to meet our commitment
to avoid a level of climate change that will compromise
the ability of ecosystems to adapt naturally, threaten food
production, and keep economic development from proceeding in a sustainable manner. Meeting the objectives
of the Paris Agreement to achieve net zero emissions in
su昀케cient time to avoid 2°C warming, let alone 1.5°C, is
very much in doubt. Current policies and more stringent
pledges and targets by 2050 may still result in 2.1°C to 2.9°C
in global warming by the end of this century. Adopting a
business-as-usual strategy without acting to drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions could result in global mean
temperatures exceeding 4°C above historical levels.
T
Quentin Chiotti
Quentin Chiotti, Ph. D., is
Technical Director, Climate
Risk and Resilience with
Matrix Solutions Inc. (A
Montrose Environmental
Company), a member of
ReNew Canada’s Editorial
Advisory Board.
David Van Vliet
David Van Vliet, P. Eng., is
Service Director, Climate
Risk and Emerging
Services with Matrix
Solutions Inc. (A Montrose
Environmental Company).
10
RENEW CANADA – MAY/JUNE2024
Such temperature increases are particularly concerning for Canada, where changes in mean temperature are
projected to be even greater than the global average, and
where public infrastructure has been identi昀椀ed as a sector
at risk. Our recently lived experiences remind us daily that
climate change is already a昀昀ecting the lives and livelihoods
of millions of people around the world. Canadians have
witnessed recurring extreme weather events, drought
conditions, 昀氀oods, heat waves and wild昀椀res potentially
threatening human health, food security, biodiversity and of
course, our infrastructure. Chronic or longer-term shifts in
climate conditions, as well as more frequent abnormal but
less catastrophic events should not be ignored, as these can
also have signi昀椀cant consequences for service delivery (e.g.,
shortened season for winter roads, more slow orders issued
for rail service during hot days, increase in freeze/thaw
cycles creating more potholes, etc.). We expect these impacts
to worsen in the coming decades and become more significant for the most vulnerable and marginalized communities, particularly those in the North. In response to growing
evidence, the need for climate adaptation is urgent. In Canada we are on track to 昀椀nance, design and build billions of
dollars of critical Canadian infrastructure projects, and we
must move faster than changes in government policy and
improvements in standards and take action to build more
resilient infrastructure today and in the future.
Most high-pro昀椀le climate change policy initiatives have
been directed towards greenhouse gas mitigation objectives as opposed to climate adaptation. Across Canada
many federal and provincial policy measures have been
initiated over the years including greenhouse gas o昀昀sets,
carbon taxes, electric vehicle incentives, and renewable
energy subsidies, among others, with uneven results.
While some have been deemed controversial and at times
politicized, national and provincial emission reductions
remain far short of reaching our commitments of the Paris
Agreement. As society grapples with the race to zero by
2050, and as the e昀昀ects of climate change increase, we can
expect greater urgency for government and the private
sector to work together to address climate change through
both mitigation and adaptation actions.
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