Major Papers

Keywords

Climate Adaptation Plan, Small and Medium Municipalities, Extreme Weather Events, Cost-Benefit Analysis, Climate Resilience, Climate Adaptation

Abstract

Combatting climate change has largely been understood as a matter of federal and provincial jurisdiction and as a result has mostly been executed in a preventative lens. However, the effects of climate change are most significantly felt at the municipal level. As a result, I argue the onus for combatting climate change should switch to the municipalities in order to focus on climate mitigation and adaptation. In fact, many of the larger cities in Ontario such as the City of Windsor have acted on this and created Climate Adaptation Plans to aid in mitigation and adaptation efforts. The larger cities creation and Adoption of Climate Adaptation Plans has opened a policy window for small and medium sized (based on population) Ontario municipalities to do the same. This paper suggests through conducting cost-benefit analyses that small and medium sized municipalities should seize this opportunity and implement a Climate Adaptation Policy to mitigate the impact of extreme weather events caused by climate change.

Primary Advisor

Lydia Miljan

Program Reader

Geoffrey Callaghan

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Department

Political Science

Document Type

Internship Paper

Convocation Year

2024

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