ICLEI Great Lakes Climate Adaptation Project

Climate change is already being experienced in communities throughout the Province of Ontario – flooding, extreme heat, changing water levels, and increased storms are only some of the impacts facing municipalities in Ontario and throughout Canada. Meaningful climate change responses draw on the skill-sets of many stakeholders and decision-makers, including municipal, provincial, and federal governments, private sector specialists, industry associations, planners, health professionals, and others; each stakeholder has a key role to play in mitigating the causes of and adapting to the effects of a climate change.

Under the Canada-Ontario Agreement (COA) Respecting the Great Lakes, the Ontario Ministry of Environment and Climate Change is supporting a project, led by ICLEI Canada, to increase climate change resilience for Great Lakes communities. Over a two-year period, ICLEI will engage approximately 30 communities in two projects aimed at building capacity on resilience planning and implementation:

1. Training the Trainer: Engaging Stakeholders in Climate Change Assessments: This project, targeting 16 communities throughout the Great Lakes watershed, will help municipalities learn how to:

Use climate change modelling data to identify local vulnerabilities,
Assess and prioritize their risks, and
Begin developing adaptation plans.

2. Collaborative Implementation Groups: Working Together to Move from Planning to Action: This project, targeting 12 communities throughout the Great Lakes watershed, will help municipalities move from planning to action on
local resilience by:

Identifying implementation ready adaptation initiatives,
Securing funding for the initiatives,
Documenting key lessons learned via a case study series, and
Leveraging future activities in order to support the actual implementation of local initiatives.

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