Canada plans to adapt to changing climate

Canada has unveiled a strategy to adapt to more frequent and devastating events such as wildfires, floods, heat waves and droughts, warning that climate change will threaten more lives without a plan to create a more resilient society.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's government released its national adaptation strategy on Tuesday after two years of consultations, amid massive wildfires that have scorched unprecedented amounts of land and clouded the air with toxic smoke.

“Canada's changing climate is significantly affecting our society and environment. Every year, the country faces increasing record-breaking climate events, including wildfires, extreme heat and floods,” Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault said in the document.

“This is a critical time — the choices we make and the actions we take today will help decide the future of communities, livelihoods, the environment and the economy.”

The strategy sets targets for the short and longer term, including eliminating deaths due to extreme heat waves by 2040. It doesn't, however, contain much detail on how those goals will be reached.

A heat dome in 2021 led to more than 600 deaths in British Columbia and sparked a raging wildfire that burned the entire town of Lytton to the ground.

The strategy also plans to factor climate resilience into all new federal infrastructure funding programs starting in 2024 and to adopt additional climate resiliency considerations into national codes for building, highways and electricity by 2026.

It aims to ensure 80% of highly exposed businesses include climate adaptation in plans to strengthen their competitiveness. Sectors at highest risk include forestry, agriculture, fisheries, energy, mining and transportation, the document says.

The federal government has previously announced $1.2 billion in funding to support the strategy. It released an initial draft last fall and conducted final consultations before issuing the finalized version on Tuesday.

The document, which has received buy-in from provinces and territories, notes that provinces and territorial governments have jurisdiction over many areas that are critical to achieving climate goals, and are at various stages of climate change preparedness.

Canada's major oil-producing provinces, Alberta and Saskatchewan, have pushed back against Trudeau's climate targets as he aims to reduce emissions by 40 to 45% below 2005 levels by 2030 and reach net zero by 2050.