The CCAP was designed to identify:
Five key areas and courses of action that Canada must engage to limit current and future impacts to industries and public sectors that will otherwise result due to climate change.
Three key areas and courses of action that Canada must engage to limit current and future property & casualty insurance impacts that will otherwise result due to climate change.
To prioritize adaptation challenges throughout Canada, CCAP employed a five-step method (Phase I) :
Step 1: Establish Climate Change Projections for Canada. The first step in the CCAP was to run ensemble climate projections for Canada, in reference to changes in temperature and precipitation regimes (relative to an average baseline of 1971-2000), across the four seasons (winter, spring, summer, fall), for the years 2020 and 2050.
Step 2: Primary Subject Matter Experts. Using the climate change projections as a framework, primary subject matter experts prepared presentations that identified the key climate change challenges for various industry and public sectors, and recommended actions to address those challenges within their core areas of expertise. They delivered their presentations to an “Adaptation Advisory Committee”.
Step 3: Adaptation Advisory Committee (AAC) . The AAC consisted of approximately 80 leaders drawn from across Canada, representing industry, finance, law, academe, aboriginal communities, government, youth and NGOs. Primary subject matter experts (from Step 2) delivered 24 presentations to the AAC. Following all 24 presentations, AAC members cast their top five votes for sectors that required immediate attention from the perspective of adaptation. Similarly, in reference to property & casualty insurance, eight presentations were delivered, and the AAC members each cast three votes to identify the top three areas they considered most important.
Based on the collective vote of the AAC, five sectors, and three areas of property & casualty Insurance were identified as the key challenges to be addressed in Canada from the perspective of adaptation to climate change.
Step 4: Secondary Subject Matter Experts . Nationally recognized subject matter experts in each sector were engaged to address the five sectors and three areas of property & casualty insurance. These subject matter experts were asked to identify specific climate change challenges, and three practical, meaningful and cost-effective actions to address those challenges, within each area.
Each subject matter expert produced two reports: (a) Summary Reports, which very concisely presented key findings to stakeholders (i.e. generally three to five pages); and (b) Detailed Reports, for stakeholders requiring more detailed explanations than those presented in the shorter reports.
Step 5: Operationalizing Recommendations. Each subject matter expert report was integrated into a final report, released in spring 2012. Following the release of the report, CCAP issued a call for projects and received proposals from across the country.
Phase II
The following were selected for their potential to forward climate change adaptation in an impactful, cost-effective, and transferable manner. Phase II will unfold over the next two years and will inform another report on strategies for adaptation, to be released in 2016.
Across Canada: Depave Paradise (5 cities)
British Columbia: Burrard Inlet Coastal Resilience
Nova Scotia: Coastal Rain Garden
Nova Scotia: Living Shorelines
Ontario: Alfred Kuehne Blvd Stream Naturalization
Ontario: Intact Bioretention System for Flood Risk Mitigation
Ontario: Leaders for Clean Water Program – Community Resilience Campaign
Ontario: Spring Creek Channel Restoration Project
Québec: Beloeil Retention Basin
Québec: Saint-Leonard Green Alley
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