I had an Ah Ha Moment in my first team project in the Master of Arts in Climate Action Leadership (MACAL) program. After several discussions about our design thinking challenge to encourage the public to become more actively engaged in climate adaptation, I realized I needed to go back to basics. I had to ask myself, “Do I really know what climate adaptation is?” and, “What type of actions are effective at different scales?”
I have been working in environmental sustainability for over 20 years and have been part of both municipal and regional climate adaptation planning processes. I managed the development of the City of Leduc’s first Weather & Climate Readiness Plan (2014), which includes actions that various city departments can take to prepare for risks that are likely to occur in Leduc, Alberta, such as high precipitation events and ice storms (p. 21). Those actions can be undertaken at the city scale within a typical budget cycle and include examples such as: making storm ponds larger, ensuring backup power sources and tornado shelters are available, and creating a work-from-home policy (pp. 24-30). I was also part of the Regional Climate Adaptation Collaborative, which examined adaptation strategies for municipalities on invasive species and urban forest management, and developed a virtual tool for homeowners to plan a climate resilient home. Therefore, at the local and regional level, I understood adaptation. However, I realized I could not articulate examples of adaptation actions that would apply at a provincial, national or international scale.
This realization surprised me. I thought with my experience, I would be able to provide my team with examples of adaptation strategies that might emerge when we consulted at both the local and provincial levels. However, I want to engage a larger population that crosses lines of class, gender, sectors, and geographic associations, because all of those voices are needed to “shape(s) the priority for social responses to climate change risk and loss” (Pelling, M., 2011, p. 84). Larger social responses will be required to move from local resilience to transformative adaptive change at the societal level, and therefore I need to understand higher level adaptation strategies.
Adger et al. (2005) state that successful adaptation “depends on both the spatial and temporal scale” (p. 80) and expand the IPCC definition of adaptation (2014, p. 118) to “a continuous stream of activities, actions, decisions and attitudes that informs decisions about all aspects of life, and that reflects existing social norms and processes” (p. 78). Therefore, the type of successful adaptation actions required at the national or international level for transformative change will need to address all aspects of life! Those actions will need to be more strategic and will take longer to implement than the actions I was previously familiar with. Some examples of higher level actions identified by the Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction for Canada as a whole include: communication strategies, resource investments, regulatory instruments, design strategies, and new roles and responsibilities for a long list of actors (Bednar, D. et al., 2018).
Another strategic adaptation action showing promise for application at a broader scale is an inclusive decision making process. The design thinking approach focuses on empathy to first define the real problem, and then generates solutions with an iterative, inclusive ideation process. It allows many stakeholders to participate, regardless of the specific topic. I believe it could be employed as a universal adaptation strategy, in and of itself, to generate actions at the provincial, national and international scales, and ultimately could lead to broad scale transformational change.
Looking through my smaller, municipal adaptation lens, I did not understand how to shift adaptation strategies to the more strategic realm. With my newly expanded definition of adaptation to suit a broader scale, I can articulate more strategic adaptation strategies.These include the use of an inclusive, empathetic decision making process to address many aspects of life in order to make transformative change at the societal level.
I want to learn more about strategic adaptation actions and about the use of design thinking processes. Do you have comments? I would appreciate hearing from you. Feel free to leave a comment, email me at: Kerra.Chomlak@RoyalRoads.ca, or connect with me on LinkedIn or @KerraC.
References:
Adger, W.N., Arnell, N.W., and Tompkins, E.L. (2005). Successful adaptation to climate change across scales. Global Environmental Change, 15(2), 77-86. https://www-sciencedirect-com.ezproxy.royalroads.ca/science/article/pii/S0959378004000901
All One Sky Foundation. (2019). Edmonton Metropolitan Region Climate Resilience Collaborative: A framework for ongoing regional collaboration. [Authors R. Boyd and J. Zukiwsky. Prepared with assistance from the Government of Canada and the Federation of Canadian Municipalities.] Retrieved from https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5ed809f05c460126fe7f10e2/t/5f3a9702dba9a2156285ca4a/1597675288452/Framework+for+Collaborative+Regional+Adaptation+Strategy.pdf
Bednar, D, Raikes, J., and McBean, G. (2018). The governance of climate change adaptation in Canada. Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction Research Paper Series, 60, Report on Multi-sector Multi-level Workshops and Expert Insights. Retrieved from https://www.iclr.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/cca-climate-change-report-2018.pdf
IPCC, 2014: Climate Change 2014: Synthesis Report. Contribution of Working Groups I, II and III to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [Core Writing Team, R.K. Pachauri and L.A. Meyer (eds.)]. IPCC, Geneva, Switzerland, 151 pp. https://www.ipcc.ch/site/assets/uploads/2018/05/SYR_AR5_FINAL_full_wcover.pdf
Pelling, M. (2011). Adaptation to Climate Change: From Resilience to Transformation. Taylor & Francis Group. Retrieved from ProQuest Ebook Central. https://ebookcentral-proquest-com.ezproxy.royalroads.ca/lib/royalroads-ebooks/detail.action?docID=958494.