Assessing Climate Change Risk and Resilience in the Yukon
5 CONCLUSION
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This Yukon risk and resilience assessment
demonstrates that climate change impacts
will continue to affect every facet of Yukoners'
lives. By centring this risk assessment on nine
Yukon values - Infrastructure, Food security,
Energy, Culture and Heritage, Access,
Community, Livelihood, Environmental health,
and Health and well-being- the recommen-
dations stemming from the assessment can
pave the way for protecting and upholding
them for the Yukon.
This assessment is a starting point. It provides
a foundation for taking a strategic approach to
climate change adaptation in the Yukon.
Adaptation actions often build on one
another (i.e., 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. This is because climate change
is not a linear process and what was (or was
not) identified at a given point in time may not
be valid at a later date.
The assessment provides a snapshot of seven
priority risk areas and current capacity to
reduce risks. It also identifies a range of
possible actions to build climate resilience.
The Government of Yukon will work to
respond to these recommendations, and will
engage with partners and stakeholders on
issues where they may be best placed to take
action. The Government of Yukon will also
evaluate the recommendations to determine
which actions should be taken right away to
reduce the highest risks.
To build on this assessment, complementary
work on climate risks and resilience could
include these steps:
implementing the recommendations
focused on monitoring, capacity building
and collaboration on risk management;
identifying the ecosystems and species at
most risk from climate change impacts;
conducting research and/or monitoring to
address topics that need further attention
(see Chapter 4 of the main report);
completing a comprehensive analysis of
risks and climate resilience across identity
factors, including geographical location,
socio-economic status, gender, Indigeneity
and other factors;
completing a more in-depth analysis of
climate change risks and opportunities for
the top economic sectors in the Yukon;
continuing to find opportunities to
meaningfully bring together Indigenous
and scientific perspectives on risk and
resilience in climate change adaptation;
continuing to build a shared understanding
of climate risks, thresholds and adaptation
actions among those responsible for
predicting, planning for, and responding
to climate change impacts; and
Incorporating participants' confidence
levels into the assessment of likelihood
and consequence of risks.
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