If Quebec’s vulnerabilities to climate change are beginning to be better documented, a lot of work remains to be done in terms of adaptation measures, underlines a report released by the Ouranos consortium on Tuesday.
Posted at 10:00 a.m.
The implementation of measures to adapt to climate change is “uneven among the different sectors and remains, for certain environments, a major challenge that must be overcome”, indicates the document, which constitutes the Quebec chapter of a federal report by Natural Resources Canada, entitled Canada in a Changing Climate: Regional Perspectives.
If reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions remains a priority to “avoid the worst scenarios”, climate change is nevertheless “inevitable”, recalls the Quebec chapter, whose main author, Angelica Alberti-Dufort, is research and knowledge mobilization specialist at Ouranos.
“The goal of adaptation is to learn to live with climate change. »
The average temperature of the province has already warmed up, depending on the region, by 1 to 3 ° C, since 1950, had already warned Ouranos in 2015.
The impacts are multiple. And urban areas (where 80% of Quebecers live), coastal areas in the east of the province, Indigenous communities, as well as disadvantaged people or people with “physical or mental constraints”, are particularly at risk. , says the report.
Extreme weather events and the damage they cause sometimes accelerate adaptation, the authors note, citing in particular the mapping of floodplains after the floods of 2017 and 2019, and the “significant investments in research-action” in the eastern Quebec in response to damage caused by coastal erosion and flooding.
However, “a lot of knowledge is still missing, particularly in terms of social sciences and adaptation methods,” argues the Quebec chapter, pleading for more research.
Montreal’s strategy for coping with extreme heat shows that certain measures, such as home visits and daily calls to sick and socially isolated seniors “seem to have reduced mortality”. On the other hand, the impact on health of heat waves or other climatic hazards in connection with variables “translating social deprivation” (being single or living alone, having contact with relatives or participating in social activities) made the object of “little Quebec work”.