What is Climate Change and Why Does it Matter?
Climate change is caused by human activity. When we burn fossil fuels for energy (like coal, oil, and natural gas), we release large amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. These greenhouse gases (GHGs), like carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and others, contribute to the greenhouse effect which is warming our planet and disrupting the balance of our natural, life-sustaining, systems.
What are Greenhouse Gases?
The green house effect is the process of gases in the earth’s atmosphere trapping the sun’s heat. Without human influence, this effect is one of the natural processes that keeps the planet a comfortable place to live. Unfortunately, the large amounts of carbon emissions that come from human activity (such as burning fossil fuels like natural gas, oil and coal) causes the earth’s atmosphere to trap more and more heat, resulting in climate change.
What is Climate Action?
Climate action is any effort taken to address climate change and lessen its negative impacts. Climate action usually involves two main concepts that can sometimes overlap:
Climate Mitigation – involves reducing or preventing the emission of GHGs into the atmosphere, such as switching from a gas powered car to an electric one.
Climate Adaptation – is the process of adjusting to the current and future effects of climate change such as restoring a wetland to help protect against flooding.
Many examples of climate action contribute to both climate mitigation and adaptation. For example, planting trees not only removes carbon dioxide from the air, but also offers shade, which helps lower temperatures in the surrounding area.
Impacts on Our Region
Even if we stop emitting green house gases today, the capital region will see longer, drier summers, wetter winters, more intense and frequent storms, and rising sea levels over the next fifty years. Without adaptation to these conditions, these changes threaten a variety of regional and local government services, as well as overall community health and well-being.
Climate Emergency Declaration
In February 2019, the Capital Regional District (CRD) Board joined many other local governments across the globe in declaring a climate emergency and identified Climate Action & Environmental Stewardship as a top priority. The CRD is working to reduce the organization’s greenhouse gases, prepare for climate impacts and support climate action efforts across the region. In 2021, CRD staff completed a comprehensive, data-driven planning process to create a renewed Climate Action Strategy that provides clarity on the role the CRD can play as a leader in climate action over the next five years. Read more >>