VANCOUVER – Vancouver City Council has approved recommendations made in the 2024-2025 Climate Change Adaptation Strategy (CCAS).
The changes focus on reducing the risk of climate-change related hazards while increasing resilience.
“Vancouver is investing in proactive adaptation measures to build a more resilient, equitable and healthy city in the face of climate change. With support from other levels of government and partners, we’re investing in actions to enhance Vancouver’s green space, expand our tree canopy, update our buildings, and implement initiatives to strengthen our infrastructure and neighbourhoods, reducing risk and enhancing our climate resilience,” said Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim in a statement.
The updated CCAS focuses on actions to respond to the five main climate change-related hazards affecting Vancouver: extreme heat, poor air quality due to wildfire smoke, drought, extreme rainfall and sea level rise.
Highlights of the recommendations, the release said, include planting trees in partnership with the Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation, to increase natural cooling through shade and expand the urban forest canopy to 30 per cent by 2050, as well as retrofitting 30 buildings through the Rental Apartment Retrofit Accelerator and Non-Profit Resilient Retrofit Grant programs to add cooling and reduce building emissions.
Green rainwater infrastructure will be expanded across the city incorporating three hectares of city street projects to enhance the natural environment, support drainage and mitigate urban heat island effect.
Additionally, a city-wide coastal adaptation policy to continue preparing for sea level rise and coastal flooding along with constructing a Sea2City coastal adaptation project is recommended for development.
Vancouver was the first jurisdiction in Canada in 2012 to adopt a proactive Climate Change Adaptation Strategy. The strategy was updated in 2018 and is now on its third iteration. In 2025, city staff will present a joint climate mitigation and adaptation plan to city council, the release said.
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