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Sara FralinBA Political Science & Environmental StudiesMA Sustainability Studies candidate at Trent UniversitySupervisor: Stephen Hill
1. How and when was the CoV able to prioritize climate change adaptation in their policy?
2. What was the political context that enabled the CoV to develop and adopt climate change adaptation policies?
3. Are their lessons that can be derived from Vancouver’s story?
Research Questions
What is climate change adaptation?
Actions that respond to the impacts of climate change (for example, flooding caused by sea level rise or increased precipitation) that also take advantage of opportunities or reduce associated risks.
Why am I researching climate change adaptation in Vancouver?
1. Climate change is a global issue. Adaptation is best addressed locally.
2. Vancouver is a unique leader in urban sustainable policy planning.
Photo: Vancouver is awarded the title Global Earth Hour Capital 2013
Why am I researching climate change adaptation in Vancouver?
The city of Vancouver is striving to become the world’s “Greenest City” during a critical time for global climate governance.
3. Vancouver engages with best practices in stakeholder engagement, community collaboration and policy integration.
More than 35,000 people
More than 9,500 residents
Over 60 City staff
More than 120 organizations
Why am I researching climate change adaptation in Vancouver?
How did I conduct my research?
Methods:
1. Literature review
2. Story of urban climate governance in Vancouver
3. Semi-structured interviews with Key Informants
Method
1. Literature review
Urban sustainability and climate change
Disaster response lit.
Climate change adaptation and
mitigation
The Carbon Neutral City Planner tool
based on getting to carbon neutral
The large cities: climate
leadership group C40
Carbon disclosure project
The partners for climate protection
(PCP)
The federation of Canadian
municipalities (FCM)
Complex systems theory
Resilience and Adaptive
management
Panarchy
ACCCERN & ISET: urban climate
resilience planning framework
Resilience alliance, assessing resilience in
social-ecological systems: workbook for practitioners
version 2.0
ICLEI – local governments for
sustainability
16 interviews conduced from July – September 2013
Andrea Reimer: city councillor 2002-present
MLA Sam Sullivan: city councillor 1993-2005, Mayor 2005-2008
David Cadman: city councillor 2002-2007, 20 years @ Metro Vancouver, President of ICLEI - Local Governments for Sustainability
Gordon Price: city councillor 1986-2002, Director of Translink1999-2002, board member International Center for Sustainable Cities
Ken Cameron: 1978-2004 Metro Vancouver, 100 yr. livable regional plan.
Tamsin Mills: CoVSustainability group Climate Change Adaptation Planner
Vancouver’s Climate change adaptation strategy policy actions1. Flood risk assessment
2. Integrated storm-water management plan and sewer separation
3. Back-up power policy
4. Increase shelter space
5. Water conservation
6. Extreme heat planning
7. Update Vancouver building bylaw
8. Urban forest
9. Stakeholder engagement
1. Culture of Livability & Sustainability
Urban futures surveys: 1973, 1990, 2012
2. History of good policy decisions
No highway, ALR, no increase in road capacity
Urban density, Live-Work-Play
3. Key events contributed to public awareness of climate issues
Flood 1945, Wind storm 2006
IPCC assessment reports
Al Gore – inconvenient truth
Environmental disasters: New Orleans, New York, Calgary.
Preliminary Results
4. Strong leadership
Engineers - Climate change adaptation working group (2007)
Vision Vancouver (2008)
5. Organizational structure at City Hall’s
Sustainability Group
6. Partnership with ICLEI, FCM, Metro Vancouver
7. Strong policy integration and no-regret actions
Ongoing sewer replacement
Urban forest - recycled from clouds of change report