Ontario adapting to climate change

Thursday, March 8, 2012

by BETTER FARMING STAFF

While it faces challenges in reducing greenhouse gases, Ontario is doing better with its strategy to adapt to change, Ontario’s environmental commissioner says.

Following the release of his report - Ready for Change? an assessment of Ontario’s climate change adaptation strategy  - at Queen’s Park on Wednesday, Gord Miller observed in a news release that “the Ontario government is off to an encouraging start in preparing the province for the impacts of climate change.”

While he endorsed the government’s plan, Climate Ready, Ontario’s Adaptation Strategy and Action Plan, 2011-2014, Miller’s news release said  “there are gaps in its strategy to limit the damage that will be caused by fiercer and more frequent ice storms, heavy rains, and heat waves.” He says in his report that the government must prioritize required actions, set targets and timelines and outline responsibilities of key government ministries.

“In essence,” Miller’s report says, “a successful strategy should focus on what new things need to be done, as well as look for ways to improve those actions already underway.”

Miller complains in his report that, “Climate Ready identifies decisive actions to address adaptation needs in Ontario, but fails to clearly indicate how these will be prioritized for implementation over the four-year timeframe of the strategy.”

Miller did not take questions after the release of his report but his news release offers this example of a gap in the government’s climate change priorities.  "Despite the importance of our energy distribution and transmission system," the release said, "the Climate Ready Plan released in 2011 does not identify any actions to be taken by the Ministry of Energy. This concerns me because scientists are predicting an increase in devastating ice storms, like the one that toppled power lines and transmission towers and caused blackouts in 1998. And the long-term decline in Great Lakes water levels could reduce electricity generation capacity by more than 1,100 megawatts."
 
Energy, Miller’s report notes, does not play a significant part in the government’s climate strategy and points out that the government plan specifies actions for only 10 ministries and the Ministry of Energy isn’t included. He writes that he “is concerned that a ministry with responsibility for guiding the planning of costly  and potentially vulnerable energy supply and delivery infrastructure investments is not given lead responsibility for any actions within the strategy.’

While the government’s Climate Ready report mentions agriculture and includes it in its goals and objectives, Miller’s report does not mention Ontario’s agriculture sector. He does, however, mention biodiversity.

“Contrary to what is implied in Climate Ready (Action 16 - Conserve biodiversity and support resilient ecosystems),” Miller’s report says, “Ontario currently lacks a strategy that outlines the government’s commitment to conserve biodiversity; its formal strategy expired in 2010. In the face of the changes that MNR (Ministry of Natural Resources) is predicting due to climate change there is an urgency to move forward on this file.”  BF