Agenda | Van Climate Day 2024

10:15

Canada’s 2023 wildfire season shattered records, burning an area equivalent to North Dakota and releasing three times more carbon than all other sources nationally. As climate change continues to amplify wildfire risks, future seasons have the potential to be even more severe.

This session, facilitated by the Mitigating Wildfire Initiative, will delve into why British Columbia is experiencing an era of megafires, exploring the profound impacts on communities and ecosystems from multiple points of view. We will discuss strategies for addressing these challenges, repairing our relationship with fire, and envisioning a resilient future. Join us for an engaging discussion and reflective exploration of how we can collectively navigate and adapt to this new reality.
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In the face of a rapidly changing climate, effective communication is crucial to mobilize communities and drive meaningful action. This workshop explores the intersection of climate change communication and community-engaged research. Through interactive discussions and hands-on activities, this workshop offers participants practical tools and strategies to enhance their advocacy and research efforts.
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Learn about SFU Climate Innovation and how it is moving the dial on community-centred climate action and innovation research. Participate in a dialogue about how ACT's accelerated climate action planning and nature-based solutions approaches can be applied within your professional associations to minimize climate risk, reduce emissions, and advance sustainability co-benefits. Reflect on potential high-impact partnerships, where interdisciplinary, co-created research could move the dial on climate action and innovation within your professional organizations.
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B.C. residents are in urgent need of more housing of all kinds. To help meet this need, many communities, governments and nonprofits are considering the options to construct multi-unit housing on the land they steward. This is an important opportunity to build socially connected and climate-resilient communities in B.C.

This workshop will explore challenges and successes of building housing on community and non-profit lands, and how these lessons can be applied in our contexts. Will include: -Understanding the current housing context: Mapping the dynamics of our current housing system -Reflections on recent housing development experiences: We’ll discuss case studies and opportunities for housing redevelopments on community-stewarded lands (e.g., on top of a school, city hall and a place of worship). -Reflections on solutions for communities: We’ll spend time in conversation about different ways that housing can address climate challenges to ensure the housing is low carbon & resilient.
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Household climate solutions, from electric vehicles to heat pumps, are more prevalent than ever before. They’re also often cheaper and pack cost saving benefits as well as emissions reductions. And yet, adoption trends are increasingly facing headwinds in the form of misinformation that can slow adoption and create confusion for Canadians who are considering making the switch. In this session, we’ll dive into some of the most common myths around household climate solutions and discuss ways to combat them. It will take the form of a short presentation by Clean Energy Canada’s communications and research staff search followed by a panel discussion featuring special guests.
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The Pembina Institute’s Reframed Lab was designed to disrupt traditional ways of procuring, designing, and delivering retrofit projects. We worked closely with building owners to select suitable buildings, define project objectives, foster collaboration, and stimulate creativity. The best-in-class schematic that the design teams developed are not typical under public procurement and portfolio renewal practices that lean toward short-term financial returns.

The request for proposals for these demonstration projects introduced qualitative objectives that do not show up on a balance sheet, and these led to creative, holistic design approaches that balance design goals. Through the Lab, six design teams produced best-in-class designs that meet ambitious energy and carbon emissions reduction targets and incorporate a range of non-energy benefits that are difficult to quantify and include in financial analyses. Participants will learn about procurement, design process and design learnings.
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As the window of time before 2050 narrows, Canada must make significant strides in climate action to achieve its goal of net-zero emissions. However, in order to do so, decision-makers must overcome misinformation, polarization and mistrust in addition to the economic and technical barriers they face. The likelihood of success will increase if governments and civil society leaders seek renewed relationships with the communities they serve.

Engaging the public in co-creating climate responses, will lead to informed and actionable solutions that are rounded in both scientific advice of technical experts and the values and lived experiences of residents, especially historically under-represented communities. In this workshop, we will share key learnings from Centre’s previous work, including five approaches to climate engagement and key challenges that limit impact. We will then seek participants’ input on our upcoming initiative to co-create a climate engagement toolkit for BC munis.
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Presenters

Learn about SFU Climate Innovation and how it is moving the dial on community-centred climate action and innovation research. Participate in a dialogue about how ACT's accelerated climate action planning and nature-based solutions approaches can be applied within your professional associations to minimize climate risk, reduce emissions, and advance sustainability co-benefits. Reflect on potential high-impact partnerships, where interdisciplinary, co-created research could move the dial on climate action and innovation within your professional organizations.
Speakers +
Presenters

B.C. residents are in urgent need of more housing of all kinds. To help meet this need, many communities, governments and nonprofits are considering the options to construct multi-unit housing on the land they steward. This is an important opportunity to build socially connected and climate-resilient communities in B.C.

This workshop will explore challenges and successes of building housing on community and non-profit lands, and how these lessons can be applied in our contexts. Will include: -Understanding the current housing context: Mapping the dynamics of our current housing system -Reflections on recent housing development experiences: We’ll discuss case studies and opportunities for housing redevelopments on community-stewarded lands (e.g., on top of a school, city hall and a place of worship). -Reflections on solutions for communities: We’ll spend time in conversation about different ways that housing can address climate challenges to ensure the housing is low carbon & resilient.
Speakers +
Presenters

Please use this section to find details about sessions taking place throughout the day.