By Ian Judd-Henrey, M.Sc, P.Geo. and David Sauchyn, PhD., P.Geo. for APEGS’ Environment and Sustainability Committee
This is the second of a series of articles on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and how they relate to the practice of engineering and geoscience.
It is widely accepted that we are in a period of changing climate. Federal scientists are predicting a future for the Prairies that includes hot and dry summers and warm and wet winters.
With this warming climate comes increased severity of extreme weather events and an increased risk of wildfires. A recent Canadian report says that since 1983, 13 of the 20 most costly weather-related disasters in Canada happened on the Prairies. So, large-scale climate changes and weather extremes should be considered during all aspects of infrastructure planning and design.
Climate change adaptation is the process of reducing the public’s vulnerability to current or expected climate-change and climate extremes. In human systems, adaptation seeks to moderate or avoid harm or exploit beneficial opportunities.
It has been said that neither adaptation nor mitigation actions alone can prevent significant climate change impacts (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change AR5 report). But taken together, they can significantly reduce the risks of climate change. It is this de-risking of the effects of climate change and climate extremes on proposed projects that engineers and geoscientists need to consider.
There is intense interest by financial institutions and investors in climate change and sustainability planning. This will be on full display during the upcoming Conference of the Parties this fall (COP26). Already there is significant and regular news that various corporations (United Airlines, Shell, BP and Air Canada) are committing to becoming net zero by a certain date.
There are international requirements and guidelines for the consideration of adaptation to climate change to better understand climate risks and uncertainties within organizations (ISO 14090:2019).
Financial institutions also are recognizing that investors are looking for sustainability-focused companies and that managing climate change is an important aspect of a company’s long-term viability.
For example, BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, will now require disclosure of climate-related risks and plans for operating under the goals of the Paris Agreement to limit global warming to less than 2 degrees Celsius, from the companies it invests in.
In 2020, the Canadian government required large employers that accessed COVID-19 funding to publish annual climate disclosure reports consistent with international standards, including indicating how their future operations will contribute to achieving Canada’s climate goals.
The federal government, through Infrastructure Canada, is now requiring potential projects that it funds must consider and examine the long-term viability of the project through a climate-change lens.
This is also a requirement of provincial governments in British Columbia and Quebec. Edmonton, Calgary and Saskatoon are also making good progress on climate-change adaption.
While Canada ranks 21st out of 162 countries in a 2020 Sustainable Development Solutions Network report in terms of sustainable development, there are many positive developments that are occurring.
There are several organizations whose mandate is to assist communities, government and businesses with understanding the potential impacts and how to respond to them. A couple of prairie-focused organizations are ClimateWest and the Prairie Adaptation Research Collaborative (PARC).
While ClimateWest’s mandate is to equip organizations with the information to adapt, PARC’s focus is more on research, understanding the data and the range of forecasts and making it usable on a local scale.
There are also professional organizations such as Engineers Canada that have taken a lead on providing information on climate change. In 2015, Engineers Canada launched the Infrastructure Resilience professional designation for Canadian engineers. This designation provides engineers with the additional knowledge and competencies they need to plan, design and manage resilient infrastructure in the face of a changing climate.