Embedding climate change action in decision-making by coastal municipalities

Coastal Zone Canada 2025 Conference information, including program and abstracts, can be found here

Abstract

As climate continues to change, extreme weather events are becoming commonplace. Although all levels of government in Canada have begun to introduce and implement policies to address climate change mitigation, so far these policies remain inadequate. Policy makers face substantial challenges in designing and implementing comprehensive policies. Often confronted by large volumes of information on climate subjects, they may have difficulty in evaluating the quality and deciding what counts as evidence to be presented to decision-makers. The uptake of relevant, credible evidence in policy processes to inform decisions about climate change adaptation remains limited in many jurisdictions. Municipal governments are directly impacted and must consider the impacts of climate change. In 2019, for example, the Halifax Regional Council unanimously declared a climate emergency. Few studies have investigated the ways in which information, evidence, and knowledge flow at science-policy interfaces in municipal government contexts. This research is identifying factors that enable or impede the uptake of evidence at the municipal level by focusing on the development and implementation of coastal climate adaptation policies. It aims to build a bridge between the policy makers who develop and implement policies and the researchers who produce knowledge on coastal climate adaptation. Four Canadian coastal municipalities will be the focus of case studies beginning with Halifax Regional Municipality. Using a transdisciplinary approach, our research questions are being co-constructed alongside the professional municipal staff. This presentation will describe the collaborative research design process and include preliminary results of a systematic literature review.

Citation

Legault, A., Toze, S., & Caron, I. (2025). Embedding climate change action in decision-making by coastal municipalities. Coastal Zone Canada Conference, Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, 9-11 June 2025.

Related Blog Post

Khan, J., Legault, A., MacDonald, B.H., Manuel, P., Margeson, M., Martinez Calderon, D., Webster, A., & Wells, P.G. (2025, July 30). Strengthening Coastal Resilience and Relationships: Reflections on the 2025 Coastal Zone Canada Conference. EIUI Blog. https://eiui.ca/strengthening-coastal-resilience-and-relationships-reflections-on-the-2025-coastal-zone-canada-conference/