| Français Home Regions Sectors Posters State-of-Play Reports |
Adapting to Climate Change: An Introduction for Canadian Municipalities
1. An Introduction to Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation
The Earth's climate is changing. Some of this change is due to natural variations that have been taking place for millions of years, but increasingly, human activities that release heat-trapping gases into the atmosphere are warming the planet by contributing to the “greenhouse effect”. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (a global scientific body of expertise on climate change), the world's average surface temperature is expected to increase by 1.4 to 5.8ºC over the period 1990-2100 (IPCC, 2001). This projected rate of change is without precedent in the last 10,000 years. As a result, historical rates of change and variability are no longer an accurate gauge for future climate conditions.
Greenhouse Gas Emissions
Human-induced climate change is caused by an increase in the emissions of several important greenhouse gases (GHGs), including carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O). Releasing these heat-trapping gases into the atmosphere increases the natural greenhouse effect that is responsible for the Earth's surface air temperature.
The use of fossils fuels in transportation, manufacturing, heating, cooling, and electricity generation is the biggest source (70-90 per cent) of GHGs. The rest comes from land use activities, such as agriculture and forestry.
In 2003, total GHG emissions in Canada amounted to 740 megatonnes. Municipalities are directly and indirectly responsible for almost half of those emissions.
Learn how municipalities across Canada are reducing greenhouse gas emissions through the Federation of Canadian Municipalities' Partners for Climate Protection Program. WWW.FCM.CA
In Canada, six of the warmest years on record occurred between 1995 and 2005. Climate change affects each region of the country in various ways (Figures 1 and 2) and almost every economic sector.
Addressing climate change requires two complementary actions: reducing greenhouse gas emissions and adapting to climate change. Canadian municipalities have demonstrated leadership in reducing greenhouse gas emissions through energyefficiency measures and the use of alternative energy sources. But the challenges of adapting to climate change have received far less attention.