Paying for Urban Infrastructure Adaptation in Canada

Legislative changes and support from provincial and federal levels of government have led to the emergence of new tools and sources of fund- ing for climate change adaptation and mitigation (emissions reduction). [...] The report offered practical support to local governments by evaluating the strengths and limitations of tools for financing and funding climate change adaptation actions and for supporting the development of cli- mate-resilient infrastructure. [...] The priority area of infrastructure includes progress indicators such as the percentage of total government infrastructure spending directed at building resilience to high priority climate risks; the percentage of communities that have asset management plans; and the number of infrastructure owners/operators that have integrated climate resilience into their planning and investments (ECCC, 2018). [...] Climate change adaptation planning and implementation at the local level is grow- ing across Canada and the US (Office of the Auditor General, 2018; US 4th Climate Assessment, 2018), as communities recognize that smart investments today can reduce the future costs of responding to climate change and extreme weather events. [...] The Climate Lens has two components: • The greenhouse gas mitigation assessment, which measures the anticipated emissions impacts of a project • The climate change resilience assessment, which uses a risk-management approach to assess the ability of the project to anticipate, prevent, withstand, and recover from climate change–related impacts The Climate Lens assessment encourages project proponen