Assessing Climate Change Risk and Resilience in the Yukon
Key messages
The Yukon's resilience stems from community
values, strong relationships, values of
self-sufficiency, communities working
together, ongoing connections to the land,
and making the most of limited resources.
Climate change continues to affect the Yukon
at a disproportionate rate when compared
to Southern Canada, and the impacts pose
cross-cutting and interconnected risks to
Yukoners' way of life. Everyone can help
build resilience to climate change impacts:
individuals, municipalities, communities,
Indigenous peoples and governments,
territorial and federal governments,
academics, non-governmental organizations
and the private sector.
Urgent and continuous action is needed to
keep up with the many changes already
underway.
This includes timely completion of and
continued work to build on actions in Our Clean
Future. The Government of Yukon, in partner-
ship with participating Yukon First Nations,
transboundary Indigenous groups and Yukon
municipalities, is already taking action on the
highest risks-floods, wildfires, permafrost
thaw and ecosystem changes - through
actions in Our Clean Future. Adaptation
actions often build on one another (in other
words, from assessing risks to implementing
strategies to reduce risks), and the Government
of Yukon will need to take an adaptive
management approach, continuing to
evaluate and adjust actions to reduce risks and
build capacity for climate resilience. In the long
term, increased and sustained resources for
adaptation to match observed and projected
changes will be required to be able to prepare
for and respond to increasing climate change
risks.
Climate change impacts are interrelated and
affect all aspects of Yukoners' lives.
Each of the high-priority climate change risks
affects the values that matter to Yukoners.
For example, impacts to transportation
infrastructure came up in almost every
discussion with project participants. Issues
such as food security, mental health, and
well-being are affected by every priority
risk area identified by the assessment. This
means that intergovernmental collaborations,
whole-of-government responses, and
partnerships are especially important for
building resilience.
Climate change impacts are not equally
distributed across Yukon, and equity must be
considered in climate change adaptation.
The Yukon's small communities are remote,
and therefore face additional challenges due to
their isolation and limited financial resources.
Socio-economic standing, gender, Indigeneity
and other factors may affect the severity with
which people experience climate change and
may influence their ability to act on resilience
recommendations.
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ASSESSING CLIMATE CHANGE: RISK AND RESILIENCE IN THE YUKONView entire presentation