Adapting to climate change in Ontario: towards the design and implementation of a strategy and action plan

This document urges prompt and vigorous action for developing a strategy and implementing early measures that will facilitate adaptation to climate change in Ontario. It identifies many areas where adaptive measures and policies are already underway or are under consideration, and uses many of these to formulate 59 specific recommendations, which can be used to make a fast start on building a more climate-resilient province.

The process uses the vulnerability approach to understand the potential for adaptation and the changes needed to facilitate more effective and accelerated adaptation. Risks and beneficial opportunities are identified from the point of view of: people in the sectors (agriculture, energy, infrastructure, health, biodiversity, forests, and water); how people in the sectors are being or could be engaged (building capacity, land-use planning, etc.); how they currently experience climate-related conditions; and how they manage or deal with them. Then it considers how climate-related exposures might change in the future, and how management strategies, programs and policies might be altered to better deal with future risks and opportunities.

Adaptation strategies are considered in light of existing management processes and policies, and adaptations to future changes in climate are explored through integration or mainstreaming (or climate proofing) in policies, programs, management strategies, and other operational decisions.