Topic: climate mitigation

Okanagan Climate Indicators Dashboard

The Okanagan Basin Water Board has launched the “Okanagan Climate Indicators Dashboard,” a tool to track climate changes in the valley over the past 100 years. This dashboard aims to inform policymakers and residents about temperature, precipitation, streamflow, and lake inflow changes, encouraging steps towards a more climate-resilient region.

Key points highlighted include:

  • A consistent shift to a warmer and drier climate over the last 30 years.
  • The importance of understanding these changes for water management, agriculture, and ecosystem needs.
  • The dashboard provides valuable data to help farmers, local governments, and residents adapt to climate changes.
  • The tool also offers resources for residents, educators, and local governments to prepare for the changing climate.

National State of Professional Workforce Knowledge and Skills to Action Climate Change Adaptation Survey (2023) Final Report

Earnscliffe Strategy Group conducted research for Natural Resources Canada to assess the preparedness of professionals in fields like engineering, planning, accounting, and landscape architecture to integrate climate change considerations into their work.

The National Adaptation Strategy emphasizes the importance of a skilled workforce in building climate-resilient communities and economies. The research aimed to identify gaps in knowledge and skills among these professionals, highlight training needs, and inform strategies for developing a skilled workforce.

The findings will help design climate change adaptation programs, understand the current labor market context, and target resources to create a diverse and inclusive workforce capable of addressing climate change across various sectors, including natural resources.

Healthy Built Environment Linkages Toolkit

This Toolkit is intended to support the inclusion of health considerations within community planning and design. It is designed as a quick reference to the body of research evidence which describes how our built environment can influence population health. The concept of a “healthy built environment” is considered through a holistic perspective including five core features:

  1. Neighbourhood Design
  2.  Transportation Networks
  3.  Natural Environments
  4.  Food Systems
  5.  Housing

This Toolkit is written for health professionals to assist them in articulating well informed and credible responses within local government planning processes and decision making. However, it can readily be used by other stakeholders

Secondary Indicators for Community Inventory Interpretation

This project was initiated to review and propose ‘secondary’ or influence indicators of progress related to energy and GHG emissions at the community level.

Specific objectives of the project are to: 
  • Identify practical indicators to support the CEEI sectors – land use, transportation, buildings, solid waste, and agriculture – to provide local and provincial government representatives with enhanced indicators for monitoring the effectiveness of local government policy changes;
  • Review currently used community-based indicators focused on energy and GHG emissions including those established for regional growth strategies and community energy plans, as well as identify suitable benchmarks appropriate to the local government in BC energy and GHG emissions reduction context; and
  • Define those indicators for which targets may be suitable and are also within the control or sphere of influence of local governments.

Rainwater Harvesting in Greater Victoria

Rainwater harvesting is the practice of collecting rainwater for beneficial use. Usually this refers to collection of rainwater from a rooftop and storing it in tanks and cisterns for later use in or near the point of collection. The use of rain barrels is a simple form of rainwater harvesting, although larger storage systems are required to serve most uses.

Preparing Together for Climate Change

An Implementation Guide for Local Governments in British Columbia This guide focuses on ways to implement climate change adaptation strategies. This tool provides resources and information for local governments to learn more about understanding, preparing for, and adapting to climate change.

Plan2Adapt

Climate change impacts do not affect every region of British Columbia in the same way. The Plan2Adapt tool generates maps, plots, and data describing projected future climate conditions for regions throughout British Columbia.

About the Tool:

  • Assists users in assessing climate change in their region based on a standard set of climate model projections.
  • Is similar to the PCIC Climate Explorer (PCEX) and uses the same data to generate its output.

Passive Design Toolkit for Homes

The toolkit has been written to inform City staff and the design and development communities about passive design. While covering best practices, the toolkit addresses the specific needs of Vancouver and outlines a succinct definition of what ‘passive’ means for Vancouver. This toolkit can be used as a reference for best practices, and considered complementary to design guidelines and policy.

Making Progress on B.C.’s Climate Action Plan

British Columbia’s world-leading Climate Action Plan was launched in 2008 with aggressive greenhouse gas (GHG) targets of a 33% reduction from 2007 levels by 2020 and an 80% reduction by 2050. This report lets British Columbians know if the Climate Action Plan is on track. The indicators are very positive.

Provincial GHG’s fell 4.5% from 2007 to 2010 while at the same time, BC’s GDP growth outpaced the Canadian average, demonstrating that a strong carbon pricing policy that is revenue neutral can coexist with a growing economy. In fact the policy of taxing something undesirable (GHG  emissions) and reducing taxes on something desirable (income) is leading to innovative clean technology growth and changes in behaviour as both companies and individuals make choices based on the carbon pricing policy.