Climate summit rolls into town

800 experts from around the globe to discuss consequences for cities

The mercury might be struggling to rise right now but Edmonton is getting hotter.

Over the last century, the temperature in the city rose on an average by 1.7 C, said Chandra Tomaras, senior environmental project manager at the City of Edmonton. But it is the rising temperatures in the last 50 years that have befuddled even the experts.

“If we were to warm at the rate that we are warming during the last 50 years, we’d be warming at the rate of 3.5 C per century,” she said.

Tomaras was speaking to Postmedia ahead of the CitiesIPCC Cities and Climate Change Science Conference taking place in the city March 5-7. The conference is expected to see about 800 global representatives from academia, research organizations, the United Nations, and cities.

There are two reasons why Edmonton is warming so fast, said Diana Urge-Vorsatz, vice-chairwoman of Working Group III, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and a professor at the Central European University.

A landlocked place like Edmonton, which sits on the inside of a continent, can warm twice as much as an area near an ocean, she said. Oceans warm slower than the continents, she said. Another reason is that a region near the Arctic warms much faster than a region that’s further away, she said.

CITIES AT HIGHER RISK FOR CLIMATE CHANGE

Cities are much more at risk for effects of climate change because they house 70 per cent of global economic outcomes.

They also house most of the built infrastructure and assets and, since cities are where most people live, these changes are felt more easily.

For instance, Cape Town, South Africa, is facing a dire situation where by mid-April it might be the first city in the world to run out of drinking water. This is one of the many effects of climate change on cities.

Tomaras said Edmonton’s sole source of drinking water is the North Saskatchewan River and the city is reliant on the flows in it.

“I can’t speak to future flows but historically, according to paleoclimatic analysis, there have been episodes of zero flow in past centuries,” she said. “Some surrounding counties even today have water rationing periods where they ask residents to not water their lawns during certain times. But in terms of Edmonton, we’ve been lucky.”

The impact of climate change for a city not only means more extreme weather events like extreme storms, floods and tornadoes but other impacts because of density and urban activity.

“Urban air quality is going to be worsened by climate change because smog is compounded by warming climate,” Urge-Vorsatz said. “Urban heat islands make the heating impact even worse. Summer heat waves will be even worse because of air conditioning because you cool the space but you put hot air on the streets. Concrete on the streets absorbs more heat, making the city hotter.”

As far as Edmonton is concerned, Tomaras said, “We’re getting warmer and we’re going to be drier in the future.”

Urge-Vorsatz said basic human needs are at risk with increasing climate change.

“Epidemic outbreaks and pests outbreaks are aggravated by climate change,” she said. “In fact new epidemics may be spreading or may be coming out — different bacteria and virus being thawed because of melting ice. And because Edmonton is closer to the Arctic, some of these could first hit these northern cities and epidemics spread in cities faster because they are densely populated.”

To mitigate the risk of climate change, she said, cities can have buildings that use newer technology and therefore reduced energy, and have better public transportation to reduce the number of vehicles on roads.

Tomaras said Edmonton is doing its part in which — among other things — it is in the process of developing an adaptation strategy. This strategy will use the current research available to identify actions that will improve Edmonton’s resiliency to climate change.

For example, the city is conducting a study, in association with a research institute in Calgary, which will spell out the environmental benefits of having green roofs, and how many green roofs are needed to make a difference and mitigate the effects of climate change.

It’s not that the climate hasn’t changed before, Urge-Vorsatz said. The problem now is that it’s changing so fast that it’s not giving flora and fauna time to evolve and adapt.