Canada should act fast to protect critical infrastructure from climate breakdown by building resiliency into ports, power grids, bridges, and more, the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) says.

Many solutions, like building seawalls to guard against storm surges or burying power lines to protect them from ice storms, are already available, but a new IISD report says a major problem is scaling the country’s ability to address the widespread challenges.

“While there are lots of good examples of how climate-resilient infrastructure is starting to really gain momentum … it’s all about scale,” said the report’s lead author Darren Swanson. “There’s so much infrastructure, and the infrastructure gaps are so large.”

The report notes Canada’s “infrastructure deficit” is anywhere from $150 billion to $1 trillion, with the gap for First Nations infrastructure between $25 billion and $30 billion. That means, to meet the country’s infrastructure needs, much more financing will have to become available.

“Leveraging the full range of investment that’s out there to really support this move toward climate-resilient infrastructure is going to be key,” Swanson said.

Changing the requirements to access funding is also necessary, he said. Infrastructure Canada requires a climate-resilience assessment as part of an application for certain types of funding, which has led to better projects than otherwise might have been built, he explained. That’s because traditionally, decisions about infrastructure have been informed by historic climate data, but given the climate will be breaking down for the foreseeable future, it’s important to build for that reality.

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