If you were looking for a new house for you, for your family, you would have a list of things to look for, to be sure about. If we were looking for a ‘house,’ a good place to live in during climate change, what would we look for?
How will your community live with, adapt to, climate change? How will Canada deal with climate change? How can a country prepare for climate change? Among others, University of Notre Dame has begun trying to understand questions like that.
When you are buying a house, you are sure to check on foundation and roof. Two good things to ask about in dealing with climate change are vulnerability and readiness.
Life support sectors are evaluated for vulnerability: food (production, imports, population), water (ground water, drinking water), health (medical staff, new diseases, slum population), ecosystems services (biodiversity, natural capital), human habitat (warm/cold periods, urban/rural, roads) and infrastructure (energy, hydro power, imports).
Economic readiness (strong economy, support for vulnerable sectors), governance readiness (political stability, safety, no corruption) and social readiness (education, rule of law, communication networks) create a readiness score.
Using these criteria, European countries are 10 of the top 13. Singapore at #5 was a surprise for me. (I guess I was expecting to see only Western countries.) Canada is #14.
For more details go to https://gain.nd.edu/our-work/country-index/rankings/