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CLIMATE SMART (Sustainable Mitigation & Adaptation Risk Toolkits)
In partnership with ClimAdapt member agencies, and with financial support from the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM), Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) Climate Change Impacts & Adaptation Directorate (CCIAD), and the Province of Nova Scotia, HRM is pioneering the development of Climate SMART.
This Sustainable Mitigation & Adaptation Risk Toolkit will assist HRM, in its efforts to “promote a healthy sustainable vibrant community,” to develop and prototype an integrated planning, management and preparedness approach for dealing with climate change.
The overall project objective is to produce a customized, impact & adaptation planning & management capability, which will help HRM:
- Reduce or “mitigate” HRM’s greenhouse gas emissions
- Increase HRM’s resilience or adaptability to climate change through better risk management decision-making tools;
- Incorporate disaster preparedness practices in HRM’s procedures
Within the context of Climate-SMART, the question arose, “How can HRM’s decision-making process be improved to address the potential impacts of climate change?” The answer lay in developing climate change municipal “toolkits” that address the various aspects of climate change, and that can be tested in a real world municipal environment.
Climate SMART Tools Include:
1. Risk Management Tool
An asset/activity risk management assessment tool to help assess the vulnerability of HRM physical and environmental assets/activities to climate impacts, under potential climate change scenarios.
2. Community-Based Vulnerability Assessment and Risk Management Tool
Techniques to identify, quantify, and evaluate anticipated climate vulnerability for the HRM Municipality itself, and the broader HRM community.
3. Cost/Benefit Assessment Tool
A cost/benefit analysis guide to assist municipal decision-makers to identify and quantify the economic costs and benefits of proposed climate adaptation planning and management measures within HRM’s existing budget, compared with the costs/benefits of a “business as usual” approach.
4. Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Tool
A practical climate adaptation tool and methodology for HRM practictioners to assess the impacts of the environment (i.e., climate change) on the project, in addition to the traditional EIA Guide that assesses the impact of the project on the environment.
5. Communications & Outreach Tool
A customized toolkit, comprised of several communications and outreach approaches, which targets vulnerable residents and businesses informing and mobilizing them to support HRM-led risk reduction (adaptation) activities and programs.
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