(Montreal) National governments are not yet ready to adapt to the consequences of the climate crisis, according to a meta-analysis of more than 1,500 scientific articles by a network of 126 researchers.
Posted at 5:14 p.m
Clara Descurninges The Canadian Press
As natural disasters become more frequent, “the vast majority of responses documented in the scientific literature to date have been taken at the local level, by households or by individuals,” the text states.
It must be said that the problems vary greatly from region to region, which means that there is no one-size-fits-all solution. “However, there is still not a sufficient level of centralized leadership in government policy and funding,” Alexandra Lesnikowski, an assistant professor of geography, planning and the environment at Concordia University and a co-author of the study, explained in a phone interview.
“It’s becoming more urgent,” she said, as Canada recently suffered “really catastrophic events like the heatwave in the West and the wildfires it caused, the terrible flooding that we’ve seen in different parts of the country, the rise in sea levels in the Atlantic Canada, the melting permafrost in the north”.
However, she remains optimistic about the direction Canada is taking as “we’ve seen certain regions of the country take strong action more quickly.” She looks forward to the publication of the country’s first National Adaptation Strategy, which will be presented by the federal government next autumn. “We need much clearer political goals for adjustment […], we need to think about what that means in concrete terms for different parts of the country. »
In comparison, France produced its first of two action plans in 2011 and the UK is also in its second national adjustment programme, the first published in 2013. The United States doesn’t have one, not always.
Canada has had a Disaster Mitigation and Adaptation Fund since 2018.
Go or stay?
Adapting to the climate crisis can be a lot of small details to consider in urban planning, Prof. Lesnikowski explained. Take, for example, heat waves, during which we should “ensure the capacity of our healthcare system” to deal with the situation, but also provide air-conditioned public spaces, “plant trees” in neighborhoods where there are few, and even “the species of materials in our buildings so that they absorb less heat”.
Unfortunately, small changes like this won’t always be enough, she warned.
During floods like the ones that have occurred in Quebec in recent years, there are certain actions we can take to limit the extent of the damage, such as “build our homes a little differently.” But we also have to decide “if there are places that are too dangerous to live right now” and where all the measures in the world will never be enough.
In addition, according to survey results, only “few studies attempt to assess the effectiveness of the measures taken”. According to Prof. Lesnikowski, not being sure whether a solution actually works could therefore lead to problems in the future, as time is running against us.
In any case, “It is also very important to consider that different communities will be disproportionately affected by climate change due to factors such as inequality, poverty, etc. »
The future still uncertain
It is still possible to adapt to the upheaval that is fast to come, but only if we reduce air pollution sufficiently.
“It’s a reality we already live, but the severity of the risks is something we can still change,” the researcher said. The future is not set in stone. »
“If we can meet our targets of reducing greenhouse gases and raising the global temperature to 1.5°C, it will greatly improve our chances. »
The first part of the sixth report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, released in 2021, concluded “that global warming will be limited to around 1.5°C or even 2°C in the absence of immediate, rapid and massive warming Reductions in greenhouse gas emissions will be out of reach”.
The article “A systemic global stocktable of evidence on human adaptation to climate change” was published in the journal Nature Climate Change in November 2021.