Assessing Climate Change Risk and Resilience in the Yukon
The project team drew on the steps in the
International Standards Organization's (ISO's)
31000 Risk Management guidelines (ISO
2018) and adapted those steps to the Yukon
context. Activities included developing a
resilience framework for Yukon; hosting a
series of conversations with project partici-
pants; scoring risks; compiling a risk database;
reviewing the results; and developing
recommendations for building resilience.
Three rounds of facilitated group discussions
informed the assessment. The three rounds
included: (1) the meaning of Yukon resilience,
in theory and in practice, and the presentation
of the proposed risk assessment framework;
(2) discussing scenarios exploring how climate
change impacts could play out in the Yukon
and Yukoners' ability to reduce risks; and (3)
sharing the risk scoring results to confirm
priorities and findings.
The project team developed a list of 41 climate
change impacts facing the Yukon. Participants
scored the likelihood that each impact would
occur, and the consequence if it did occur. The
likelihood score was multiplied by the conse-
quence score to equal the risk score for each of
the nine values. The higher the risk score, the
more severe the risk. The team reviewed the
risk scores alongside the feedback from
discussions with participants to identify
high-risk priorities for building resilience.
Participants explored three main questions
throughout the assessment:
.
•
What climate change impacts are the most
significant?
In what ways are Yukoners undertaking
actions, or ready to take actions, to manage
climate risk?
What additional support or work is
required to ensure that Yukoners are
resilient?
Overall, the guidance of project participants
helped to describe how climate change
impacts affect the things that matter to
Yukoners. 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 resulting
recommendations can lead the way to
protecting and upholding these values for
the Yukon.
A note on method
This assessment began to build a shared
understanding of climate change risks and
resilience. This required the broadening of
perspectives typically considered in risk
assessments. The assessment considered
lived experience, stories, anecdotal evidence
and local observations, and Indigenous
values, as well as scores of risk likelihood and
consequence. It adapted the principles and
frameworks outlined in both ISO 31000 Risk
Management - Principles and Guidelines, and
ISO 14091 Adaptation to climate change
Guidelines on vulnerability, impacts and risk
assessment.
ISO 31000 outlines the standards and guide-
lines for risk assessments. ISO 31000 explains
that risk assessments aim to manage risk
through careful and systematic identification,
analysis and treatment. It recommends that
risk management frameworks be continually
4. Throughout this report, the "project team" refers to the Government of Yukon's Climate Change Secretariat, Brian Horton and
Jocelyn Joe-Strack from Yukon University, Steve Roddick from Resilience North, and the team at the Climate Risk Institute.
CHAPTER 2 PROJECT OVERVIEW
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