Concurrent Sessions 2 | Feb 19, 2020 > (CS2-FR) Assessing British Columbia’s Climate Risks and Building a Business Case for Resilience (Oral presentations)
(CS2-FR) Assessing British Columbia’s Climate Risks and Building a Business Case for Resilience (Oral presentations)
Moderator: Bob Purdy
Assessing Climate Risks at the Provincial Scale – The BC Example
Presenter: Johanna Wolf
In 2019, the Province of British Columbia released the Preliminary Strategic Climate Risk Assessment for BC and the associated framework. This assessment was a first attempt to quantify climate-related risks that would have major provincial significance. This innovative approach quantifies risk using the likelihood and consequences of specific scenarios occurring in the present and in the 2050s. In this presentation, the results will be discussed both in terms of the ranking of the overall risk scores as well as by nuancing the consequences across different risks. Future work will include scaling this framework for wider use by ministries, public sector organizations and regional governments. This preliminary assessment is intended to be iterative and will help inform the new climate preparedness and adaptation strategy, for release in 2020, a commitment of the 2018 CleanBC plan
The Costs and Benefits of Climate Impacts and Adaptation in Canada: Demonstrating the Business Case for Resilience
Presenter: Richard Boyd
Climate change is already causing impacts with significant economic consequences today and will increasingly do so in the future. Demand is growing for information on the net costs of climate change, as well as the costs and benefits of adaptation strategies, amongst people charged with making decisions governing options to reduce the impacts and risks of climate change.
This presentation will summarize the state of knowledge of climate change impacts and adaptation economics in Canada. It starts out by setting the context for adaptation decision-making, highlighting the supporting role of economic analysis and tools. Next, estimates of the economic consequences of climate change for Canada are assessed from a national, provincial, municipal and sectoral perspective. Economic tools to support adaptation decision-making and their application in Canada are subsequently discussed. It wraps up by providing broad conclusions and key messages for building the business case for investment in climate adaptation.