Here in the Regional District of East Kootenay (RDEK), we are experiencing changes in our climate including more extreme wildfires, flooding, hotter summers, and poor air quality from wildfire smoke. These events have a direct impact on the health of residents, including the direct threat of rising temperatures, increased exposure to poor air quality, and challenges to mental, emotional and community health. Further, these impacts are projected to increase over time.

The RDEK is in the process of developing a Climate Action Plan for our six Electoral Areas. The Plan will lay out how we can reduce emissions and increase resilience both in the region and in our corporate operations.

An Engagement Summary, including the recent Climate Action Plan survey, is now available and provides an overview of the engagement and consultation to date as part of this process. The summary can be found under the "Documents" heading on this page.

In total, over 1080 people responded to the survey. Thank you to everyone who took the time to share their thoughts through the survey, and stakeholder workshops.

The goal of The Climate Action Plan is to set targets to reduce community and corporate greenhouse gas emissions, identify actions in key areas that will set out how the RDEK will help meet these targets, and identify actions to help the community become more resilient to changes in our climate. It will also provide guidance on the expenditure of the RDEK’s Local Government Climate Action Program (LGCAP) funds.

Reducing emissions, or climate mitigation, includes any actions that work to reduce or prevent the emission of greenhouse gases (GHG) and is an important part of responding to climate change. The more we reduce total GHG emissions in the short term, the less intense these changes will be over time and the less costly our response needs to be than if we delay action. However, even if we significantly reduced GHG emissions overnight, the effects of climate change would continue to be felt by future generations for a long time to come. That’s why the Plan also focuses on increasing resilience, or climate adaptation measures, which will help us adjust to impacts already felt in our region and reduce our vulnerability to the harmful effects of climate change.

A draft plan is expected to be shared with the public in the spring of 2024.

Pinna Sustainability has been hired as a consultant to develop the Climate Action Plan, under the guidance of Project Manager Rodrigo Baston.

Questions about the summary or Climate Action Plan may be directed to rodrigo@pinna.ca.

Funding for this project has been provided in part by Fortis BC's Climate Action Partners Program. We are grateful for their financial support.