Climate Change Adaptation

The Town of Portugal Cove – St. Philip’s recognizes that the climate is changing. Global climate change has local impacts, and while it is important to continue to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to avoid catastrophic levels of global warming, it is also important to proactively adapt to the impacts of climate change both now and in the future.

As such, the Town of Portugal Cove – St. Philip’s has joined two climate adaptation initiatives; the Adaptation Changemakers project, a two-year initiative lead by ICLEI Canada that supported eight municipalities across Canada in developing a community climate change adaptation plan, as well as the Engaging and Supporting Municipalities to Build Capacity to Adapt to the Impacts of Climate Initiative, a program supporting municipalities in reducing their vulnerability to the Impacts of climate change, in partnership with Conservation Corps Newfoundland and Labrador (CCNL) and funded through the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM).

In 2020 the Town of Portugal Cove – St. Philip’s completed both its Climate Change Adaptation projects with assistance from the Government of Canada, the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, and Conservation Corps Newfoundland and Labrador. These reports outline potential risks and suggested actions to increase the Town’s adaptive capacity to the impacts of climate change. These actions have been referred to a number of municipal departments and organizations within the Town for further development, costing, approvals and implementation.

The reports were based on available data from The Climate Atlas of Canada Tool, Environment Canada’s Climate Change Data and Scenarios Tool, and a Climate Change Projections Study commissioned by the Government of Newfoundland in 2018. An infographic of projected changes for Portugal Cove-St. Philip’s is provided below.