Climate Adaptation Plan
Prince Edward Island’s Climate Adaptation Plan provides a concrete roadmap for the province to better prepare for the future while lessening climate change’s impacts on Island residents.
Building Resilience: Climate Adaptation Plan includes action items to support vulnerable populations, primary industries, and the province’s natural habitat.
The plan contains the following six themes affecting all government departments along with Island residents and communities:
Disaster resilience and response
Extreme weather events are occurring more often due to climate change and directly impact our homes, workplaces, essential services, and the natural and built infrastructure in our communities. The ability of infrastructure and other assets to withstand these impacts ensures residents’ safety and access to emergency and essential services. Work in this area includes:
- helping Islanders prepare for heavy rainfall and post-tropical storms
- building awareness of heat waves through Stay Cool PEI
- preparing and mitigating forest fire risk through FireSmart
- increasing awareness of hazards such as erosion and flooding through CHRIS
Resilient communities
One of the strengths of PEI is our community connections. This is never more evident than during an emergency. With this in mind, we must continue strengthening our communities and making smart choices for our future. Our communities require support to know how to develop, adapt existing infrastructure and protect cultural and historical sites and artifacts to be climate resilient. This includes expanding the Climate Challenge Fund to support the development of innovative solutions to the threat of climate change to support more community-based climate projects like the Three Rivers reception centre, the Town of Stratford urban forest inventory, and the Lennox Island First Nation Netukulimk education program
Climate ready industries
Changing climate conditions are already resulting in challenges to how we far, fish, and provide tourism experiences and services in PEI. Drier summers, warmer winters, and longer shoulder seasons mean that our industries and businesses are looking for new techniques, technologies, and expertise to adapt. Work in this area includes renewing the ClimateSense program which is offering climate-related training opportunities for local professionals and practitioners.
Health and mental well-being
Climate change is already putting pressure on people’s physical and mental well-being and will continue to have worsening effects. Health-related impacts on PEI may include temporary or permanent loss of shelter, isolation, physical or emotional trauma, infectious diseases, heat stress, and loss of livelihood and culture. Climate change will also continue to impact health-related infrastructure, including facilities like hospitals and long-term care homes, and access to healthcare services and community care support. The province is working to assist residents with the health and wellness impacts of climate change through initiatives like expanding the Free Heat Pump Program so more people can receive heat pumps to help heat and cool their homes
Natural habitat and biodiversity
Climate change will impact natural systems, but harnessing natural systems can also improve our resilience to climate change. Our relationship with nature needs to shift, and we must take bold steps to preserve biodiversity and ecosystem functions. In securing our landscapes and services, nature-based solutions are the first consideration. Nature can help conserve our landscapes and infrastructure, as well as assist with our mental health and well-being. This includes providing clearer information on coastal hazards before purchasing or developing a property.
Knowledge and capacity
Confronting the challenge of worsening climate hazards in PEI means we will need to better equip ourselves with the knowledge, skills, and networks necessary to reduce the risk to our infrastructure, homes, and activities. While progress has been made through the Climate Change Risk Assessment and other research, disseminating this information is critical to empowering all Islanders to understand the impacts of climate change. This includes having climate change coordinators for each government department to apply a climate change lens to executive council policies and decisions and work together across departments to help solve problems.
Where can I get more information about climate change impacts?
The Province’s recently-released Climate Change Risk Assessment (Fall 2021) considered seven climate hazard scenarios — coastal erosion, post-tropical storm, heat wave, heavy precipitation and flooding, severe ice storm, earlier, warmer springs, and seasonal drought — and their consequences upon health, social stability, environment, infrastructure and economic sectors. Learn more about the PEI Climate Change Risk Assessment.
The Province released updated coastal flood hazard maps in November 2021, depicting the extent of flood hazard across the Island. Learn more about coastal hazards on PEI.