Building a Resilient Canada

The report examines current practices and emerging actions to reduce vulnerability and exposure to natural hazards through the integration of climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction. Although the report mainly refers to Canada, it can provide a conceptual framework and examples relevant for governments, businesses, individuals, and other stakeholders of European countries and beyond.

The main findings reported are the following: 

• An ongoing failure to fully integrate climate change adaptation into DRR activities, policies, and tools reduces the efficiency and impact of public investments in disaster resilience, leaving Canadian communities at risk.
• Successfully integrating adaptation and DRR requires overcoming barriers such as disciplinary and departmental silos, conceptual and terminological differences, and jurisdictional misalignments while accounting for perceptions and cognitive biases that affect decision-making.
• The integration of adaptation and DRR requires a combination of i) information systems adapted to the needs of decision-makers and ii) flexible funding, financing, and insurance arrangements that support proactive investment.
• Whole-of-society collaboration as well as government mandates are necessary to operationalize integration.