City of Victoria Climate Change Adaptation Plan

ICLEI Canada is working with the City of Victoria to develop a climate adaptation strategy that builds upon the ‘Adapting Early’ principles established in the City’s Climate Leadership Plan, and will focus on the implementation of these actions. While climate change mitigation that focuses on greenhouse gas reduction is imperative for our sustainability we also need to adapt to the changes already underway. Victoria is one of many local governments planning actions to reduce vulnerability and risks associated with the impacts of climate change within city operations and within the community, and is following ICLEI’s BARC methodology.

Through the Plan development process Victoria-specific impacts have been identified, the community’s vulnerability to current and future impacts has been evaluated, the risk that climate change poses to the community’s built, social, environmental, and ecological systems has been evaluated, and we are now working to identify community adaptation actions to increase adaptive capacity.

Victoria’s Climate Change Adaptation Plan will focus on both the City’s corporate and community commitments to respond to and prepare for the impacts of climate change, today and in the future.

Key to the development of the Community Chapter of the Climate Change Adaptation Plan, is that it is community-supported and co-produced. While the City of Victoria will guide the Plan development, it is key services and organizations in the community that will support and lead the implementation of certain adaptation actions outlined in the Plan. The Climate Adaptation Working Group (CAWG) is a community stakeholder group that has been working hard on the Community Chapter of Victoria’s Climate Change Adaptation Plan.

For more information about this ongoing project, please contact Rena Viehbeck: rena.viehbeck@iclei.org.

Photos: Header – Garry Oak Meadow, Government House_Nasadyk, A (Flickr); Victoria, BC Background photo_Rodgers, K (Flickr).