Adaptation Fund
Learn about Nova Scotia Environment's new climate change adaptation fund.
The Impacts of Climate Change on Nova Scotia
The Earth's climate is changing, and human activity is causing most of the change. The amount of greenhouse gas in the atmosphere is now far higher than at any time over the past 650 000 years. In Nova Scotia, climate change is already happening. The average temperature in Nova Scotia rose by 0.5°C in the last century. The amount of rain and snow falling on Atlantic Canada increased by 10 per cent between 1948 and 1995. Nova Scotia will likely keep getting warmer. By 2050, we expect summers in Atlantic Canada will be 2 to 4°C warmer than they were in 2005. Winters will be 1.5 to 6°C warmer than they were in 2005. Nova Scotia will also keep getting wetter. Atlantic Canada expects more precipitation because of climate change. We also expect more variation in rainfall from season to season and from year to year. Extreme rainfalls that happened only once every 50 years in the last century are likely to occur once every 10 years in this century.
The sea level is rising. The sea level in Nova Scotia rose 25 cm in the last 100 years. It is likely to rise another 60 cm in the next 100 years. With 7600 km of coastline, much of Nova Scotia is vulnerable to rising sea levels.
We expect that storms and floods will get worse and happen more often. Rising sea levels mean that storm surges will likely get even more destructive. Places that have never flooded before may get flooded. Low-lying areas will likely be flooded more often.
Climate change will affect each region in Nova Scotia a little differently. If you live inland, for example, you might see hotter, drier summers than people who live on the coast. We will also see a different suite of impacts on the land, on the coast, and in the sea; in cities and in rural areas; on forestry, fisheries, and agriculture. There will be opportunities that come with a changing climate, as well as challenges.
Adapting to Climate Change
Addressing climate change will require two approaches: we must reduce our greenhouse gas emissions through energy efficiency and switching to green energy sources, and we must adapt to a changing climate.
Climate change adaptation is any action that reduces the negative impact of the changing climate, or takes advantage of a new opportunity. Adaptation will not stop climate change from happening, but it can lessen the negative impact on our environment and our communities.
Examples of adaptation actions could include planting different crops in response to warmer temperatures, or designing a public health alert for heat waves. As we prepare for worse storm surges, we could build buildings that can stand up to harsher storms and more flooding. We could also avoid siting new buildings in low-lying coastal areas and bring back natural ecosystems that can absorb the impact of storms.
Anticipatory adaptation is often less costly than trying to adapt in the aftermath of extreme weather events.
Most of our population in Nova Scotia lives along the coastline and many of our roads and buildings are in vulnerable areas. In many cases, that infrastructure was designed to withstand weather events less extreme and less frequent than what we now expect.
Nova Scotians are already taking action to adapt to climate change.
For example, Annapolis Royal started the Tidal Surge Project in 1998. The Clean Annapolis River project assessed the town’s vulnerability to tidal surges and identified wide potential risk zones for flooding. The maps showed the need for proper dyke maintenance to protect the town. The findings also caused the Fire Department to modify its emergency response plans, and buy a boat. Town citizens learned about the need for adaptation through public forums and a mock disaster scenario. For more information, go to Annapolis Royal’s Emergency Management and Climate Change site.
Another example is ClimateSMART (a Sustainable Mitigation and Adaptation Risk Toolkit). The toolkit will help the Halifax Regional Municipality to develop an integrated and comprehensive approach to climate change planning. The program includes partners from federal, provincial, and municipal governments, the private sector, and community groups. HRM is a pilot municipality for the ClimateSMART program. The lessons learned in Halifax will be used to make a management toolkit for other communities to use. For more information, go to: HRM's Climate Smart web site.
Case studies of the Annapolis Royal Tidal Surge Project and ClimateSMART are available in the report Adapting to Climate Change: An Introduction for Canadian Municipalities produced by the Canadian Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation Research Network.
In the future, we will be posting helpful tools and resources to help Nova Scotians adapt to a changing climate. If you have questions, you can email us at climatechange@gov.ns.ca.
