Canada's National Adaptation Strategy is the first plan of its kind to prepare communities for climate disaster. Here are its blind spots.

The National Adaptation Strategy promises a ‘down payment’ of $1.6 billion to prepare Canada’s healthcare capacity, infrastructure, and communities for climate change.

Why It Matters

The NAS doesn’t give enough detail to act as a comprehensive blueprint on adapting Canada to climate change, yet many communities are already facing extreme weather. Social purpose organizations may have to fill in the blanks.


 Montreal, Canada. 8th May, 2017. Neighbors safeguard dams with sandbags as flooding hits Cousineau street (Photo: Marc Bruxelle/Alamy Live News)

This journalism is supported by the Future of Good editorial fellowship on climate change and human health, supported by Manulife. See our editorial ethics and standards here.

Canada unveiled its first ever National Adaptation Strategy (NAS) — a plan to adapt the country’s infrastructure and its people to climate change. 

The government released the strategy at the tail end of 2022, after the COP27 conference in Egypt had wrapped and just before COP15, the world’s largest international nature and biodiversity negotiation session in a decade.

“Climate change is affecting Canada in ways that

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