Climate change mitigation refers to actions that reduce greenhouse gas emissions or enhance carbon sinks to limit the severity of future climate change (e.g., improving energy efficiency, shifting to renewable energy, reforestation, and reducing fossil fuel use)
Understanding Our Changing Climate
According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Sixth Assessment Report (AR6), climate change refers to long-term changes in temperature, precipitation, and weather extremes driven predominantly by human activities, especially the burning of fossil fuels, deforestation, and land-use change, which have increased atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations to levels unprecedented in at least 2,000 years.
The current global climate situation provides clear evidence of warming, with the global average temperature already about 1.4°C above pre-industrial levels, with significantly higher warming in Canada (about twice the global average). This has led to more frequent
and severe heatwaves, heavier rainfall and flooding, longer droughts, and widespread ecological disruptions. AR6 concludes that some impacts are already irreversible, but the severity of future risks largely depends on near-term emissions reductions (mitigation) and adaptation measures.
Climate Mitigation and Adaptation
Adaptation involves adjusting systems, infrastructure, and communities to manage the impacts of climate change that are already occurring or unavoidable (e.g., flood-resistant infrastructure, heat-health plans, climate-resilient land use, and urban canopy).
Municipal actions can address climate mitigation and adaptation together through dual-benefit solutions such as restoring wetlands to store carbon and reduce flooding, expanding urban tree canopies to sequester CO₂ while cooling neighbourhoods, installing green roofs and bioswales to cut building energy use and manage stormwater, and using permeable pavements and native-landscaped parks to reduce emissions while increasing resilience to heat and extreme rainfall, and providing much-needed habitat.