symons seminar presentation - Towards a Sustainable City

Sara FralinBA Political Science & Environmental StudiesMA Sustainability Studies candidate at Trent UniversitySupervisor: Stephen Hill

What am I researching?

1. How and when was the CoV able to prioritize climate change adaptation in their policy?

2. What was the political context that enabled the CoV to develop and adopt climate change adaptation policies?

3. Are their lessons that can be derived from Vancouver’s story?

Research Questions

What is climate change adaptation?

Actions that respond to the impacts of climate change (for example, flooding caused by sea level rise or increased precipitation) that also take advantage of opportunities or reduce associated risks.

GDP$35 billion (US dollars)

Vancouver BC

GDP$35 billion (US dollars)

Why am I researching climate change adaptation in Vancouver?

1. Climate change is a global issue. Adaptation is best addressed locally.

2. Vancouver is a unique leader in urban sustainable policy planning.

Photo: Vancouver is awarded the title Global Earth Hour Capital 2013

Why am I researching climate change adaptation in Vancouver?

The city of Vancouver is striving to become the world’s “Greenest City” during a critical time for global climate governance.

3. Vancouver engages with best practices in stakeholder engagement, community collaboration and policy integration.

More than 35,000 people

More than 9,500 residents

Over 60 City staff

More than 120 organizations

Why am I researching climate change adaptation in Vancouver?

How did I conduct my research?

Methods:

1. Literature review

2. Story of urban climate governance in Vancouver

3. Semi-structured interviews with Key Informants

Method

1. Literature review

Urban sustainability and climate change

Disaster response lit.

Climate change adaptation and

mitigation

The Carbon Neutral City Planner tool

based on getting to carbon neutral

The large cities: climate

leadership group C40

Carbon disclosure project

The partners for climate protection

(PCP)

The federation of Canadian

municipalities (FCM)

Complex systems theory

Resilience and Adaptive

management

Panarchy

ACCCERN & ISET: urban climate

resilience planning framework

Resilience alliance, assessing resilience in

social-ecological systems: workbook for practitioners

version 2.0

ICLEI – local governments for

sustainability

Method2. Story of urban climate governance in Vancouver

Method3. Semi-structured interviews with key informants: policy makers and politicians

16 interviews conduced from July – September 2013

Andrea Reimer: city councillor 2002-present

MLA Sam Sullivan: city councillor 1993-2005, Mayor 2005-2008

David Cadman: city councillor 2002-2007, 20 years @ Metro Vancouver, President of ICLEI - Local Governments for Sustainability

Gordon Price: city councillor 1986-2002, Director of Translink1999-2002, board member International Center for Sustainable Cities

Ken Cameron: 1978-2004 Metro Vancouver, 100 yr. livable regional plan.

Tamsin Mills: CoVSustainability group Climate Change Adaptation Planner

How did the CoV develop its Climate Change Adaptation Strategy?

Vancouver’s Climate change adaptation strategy policy actions1. Flood risk assessment

2. Integrated storm-water management plan and sewer separation

3. Back-up power policy

4. Increase shelter space

5. Water conservation

6. Extreme heat planning

7. Update Vancouver building bylaw

8. Urban forest

9. Stakeholder engagement

1. Culture of Livability & Sustainability

Urban futures surveys: 1973, 1990, 2012

2. History of good policy decisions

No highway, ALR, no increase in road capacity

Urban density, Live-Work-Play

3. Key events contributed to public awareness of climate issues

Flood 1945, Wind storm 2006

IPCC assessment reports

Al Gore – inconvenient truth

Environmental disasters: New Orleans, New York, Calgary.

Preliminary Results

4. Strong leadership

Engineers - Climate change adaptation working group (2007)

Vision Vancouver (2008)

5. Organizational structure at City Hall’s

Sustainability Group

6. Partnership with ICLEI, FCM, Metro Vancouver

7. Strong policy integration and no-regret actions

Ongoing sewer replacement

Urban forest - recycled from clouds of change report

1. Complete content and discourse analysis of interviews.2. Integrate with literature review3. Write narrative: Vancouver’s story of climate governance

Lots of work left to do…