| Canada's North is on the frontline of climate change. Nowhere else are the effects and stakes of failing to adapt to climate change so high.
True North highlights the risks to northern infrastructure posed by climate change and the opportu- nities in adaptation. It casts a light on one of the most critical aspects of adaptation ¨C ensuring the infrastructure is resilient over its lifespan in the face of climate change. Our report shows clearly how we can use existing risk management tools to reduce infrastructure vulnerabilities and adapt more ef- fectively to climate change in Canada's North.
To do so, we need to do two things: first, make climate change adaptation more of a ¡®mainstream' issue than ever before and, second, build northern capacity to adapt to climate change. We can help achieve this by undertaking four priorities:
1. Integrate climate risks into existing government policies, processes, and mechanisms;
2. Ensure northern interests are represented and implicated in the development of climate change adaptation solutions;
3. Strengthen the science capacity and information use in the North to support long-term adaptation efforts;
4. Build community capacity to address climate risk to northern infrastructure and take advantage of opportunities.
Climate change adaptation is at its heart, a security issue for Canadians. Making the roads we travel, the buildings we work and live in, the pipelines that carry our energy and wealth ¨C all these and more ¨C secure in the face of looming climate change is not just a challenge to Canada's North, but an obliga- tion to us all. | 