Kitchener Rotary

e-Newsletter

August 16, 2021

Meeting Recording

A recording of Today’s Meeting can be found by clicking here

President's Comments

President Adrian welcomed everyone to this, our 7th meeting of our 100th year.
 

Visiting Rotarians

Elena Shpinel, RC of Moscow International

Guests

Karim S. Karim, guest of the Club
Tasreen Charania, guest of the Club

Happy Jar

Bill Proctor was happy to announce that he and Judy will be celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary on August 21.
 
Erin Way is happy that her partner, Sean, was able to go away camping with his childhood friends for a week in two canoes they built together. And she is also excited to have the house to herself for a week.
 
Paul Rostrup is happy that his son Mark and his partner, Alexandra's plans to move back to Ontario are becoming a reality with a new apartment being found in Peterborough and both being able to get on the Occasional Teacher list for the local school board as French Immersion Teachers.
 
Our guest, Tasreen is happy that today is her first day back at work since the pandemic shutdown started and she is delighted to be starting to set up for classes to begin in September.

Club Announcements

Paul Rostrup let members know that for week 48 of Catch the Ace KW, Rose S., won the weekly prize of $4,076 when she picked card Number 30, the Six of Hearts.  The big question remaining is, Where is the Ace of Spades? With just 4 cards left from which to choose, the chances of picking the Ace and winning the progressive pot of over $71,000 are getting very, very good!
 
 
Neil Swayze reminded members of our Online Fundraising Committee of their meeting on Thursday and let members know that the kick off for this year’s event will be on August 30, an evening meeting.  Neil also thanked Shawky Fahel for providing a storage space for the auction this year.
 
Lew Ford announced that the next meeting of our Indigenous Relations committee will be next Monday at noon.  Diane Dance, from the RC of Guelph will be joining the committee, she has lead their club in this area for several years.  All members are welcome to attend even if not an official committee member, let Lew know if you are interested and he will send you the link.
 

Program Highlights

Our guest speaker today was Joanna Eyquem PGeo. ENV SP. CWEM. CEnv, Managing Director, Climate-Resilient Infrastructure, Faculty of Environment, University of Waterloo. 
 
She was introduced by Betty Bax:
Joanna is Managing Director of Climate-Resilient Infrastructure at the Intact Centre on Climate Adaptation (University of Waterloo) focused on accelerating climate adaptation in Canada. Natural infrastructure is at the heart of her career having worked as a Professional Geoscientist over the last 20 years, both in Canada and the UK, specialising in climate adaptation, river restoration and flood and erosion management. Her current focus areas include: (1) preservation, restoration and effective management of natural infrastructure to reduce climate risk (2) mobilizing flood and erosion resilience action at local to strategic scales; (3) developing programs to limit risk of extreme heat; and (4) incorporating consideration of climate risk and natural assets into institutional investing, credit rating assessments and securities disclosure. Before joining the Centre, Joanna was the Global Technical Practice Group Lead for Climate Resilience at AECOM. She is Chair of the Sustainability and Climate Change Adhoc Subcommittee for Professional Geoscientists Ontario and fulfils several advisory roles, including on the Climate Change Network Specialist Panel for CIWEM, the Natural Resources Steering Committee for CSA Group and the InterSectoriel Flood Network of Quebec (RIISQ). Joanna holds an MSc in Environmental Technology (Water Option) from Imperial College London and a BSc in Geography (Earth Sciences) from the University of Exeter, UK. She is a Professional Geoscientist (P.Geo.), Envision Sustainability Professional (ENV SP.), Chartered Water and Environmental Manager (CWEM.) and Chartered Environmentalist (CEnv.) and has been based in Montreal since 2009.
 
Her presentation was called - Climate change – widespread, rapid, and intensifying, which is a quotation from the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change).
 
Click here to see Power Point presentation.
 
In her presentation Joanna covered three main areas:
  1. Climate Change: Global and Canadian Perspectives
  2. Economic Costs
  3. Urgent Action to Reduce Risk
 
Climate Change: The Global Context
Climate Change 2021 – The Physical Science Basis
“It is unequivocal that human influence has warmed the atmosphere, ocean and land Widespread and rapid changes in the atmosphere, ocean, cryosphere and biosphere have occurred.”
  • Climate Change is happening now
  • This report contains no surprises – confirms what has previously been stated.
  • Urgent action is needed to BOTH:
    • Reduce Greenhouse Gases
    • Prepare for foreseen climate risks
 
Canada’s Changing Climate Report
We are 2 X the rest of the world
Climate Change: The Canadian Context
  1. Canada’s climate has warmed and will warm further in the future, driven by human influence.
  2. Both past and future warming in Canada is, on average, about double the magnitude of global warming. 
  3. Warming is effectively irreversible.
 
Climate Impacts
  • More extreme heat / less extreme cold
  • Shorter seasonal coverage of snow and ice
  • Melting of glaciers and permafrost
  • Rise in sea level
 
Intensification of certain extremes:
  • Intense rainfall and urban flooding
  • Coastal flooding
  • Severity of heat waves
  • Risk of drought and forest fire
 
Climate Risk . . . a key economic and social issue
  • Increase largely due to water damage and extreme weather
  • Uninsured losses of governments and householders estimated at 3 to 4 times these costs
  • Human Capital:
  • Major public safety issue
  • Mental health
  • Financial Capital:
  • Rise in insured and uninsured losses
  • Maintenance costs
  • Lost work hours
  • Insurance premiums - ↑ 20-25% in 5 years, 15% due to water damage
  • Natural Capital:
  • Disruption of natural processes
  • Impacts on habitats and species
  • Investor confidence:
  • Climate change risk being disclosed and being taken into account in Investment decisions
 
Much of Joanna’s current work and research is in the area of dealing with and adapting to the effects of climate change.
 
Practical Action: Municipalities and Provinces
  • Flood Risk Assessment
  • Land Use Planning
  • Urban Drainage Assessment
  • Residential Property Risk Notification
  • Critical Infrastructure Risk Notification
  • Public Health & Safety
  • Emergency Management
 
We are making progress but not fast enough
 
Key Takeaways
  • We know the problem
  • We have developed several solutions
  • NOW is the time to act
  • EVERYONE has a role to play
 
The Intact Centre On Climate Adaptation has developed several documents to assist homeowners in minimizing the risks and impacts of climate change impacts such as flooding and fires.  These include:
Three Steps to Cost-Effective Home Flood Protection : Intense rainfall events combined with aging municipal infrastructure, increased urbanization and a lack of flood protection measures at the household level have resulted in losses in billions of dollars for Canada’s insurance companies, governments, homeowners, landlords and tenants over the past decade. The Intact Centre has developed a variety of resources to help Canadians take action to reduce their home flood risk.
 
Three Steps to Cost-Effective Home Wildfire Protection : FireSmart Canada leads the development of resources and programs designed to empower the public and increase community resilience to wildfire across Canada. The Intact Centre has collaborated with FireSmart Canada to create a summary of the top actions residents can take to reduce home wildfire risk.
 
Also available are a number of reports that provide background information and details on the issues mentioned in her talk.  Recent reports include:
 
Climate Change and the Preparedness of 16 Major Canadian Cities to Limit Flood Risk (February 2021): by Dr. Blair Feltmate and Marina Moudrak. This report examined the preparedness of 16 major Canadian cites to minimize the negative consequences of current and future floods. It is the intent of this report to provide an informed perspective that will contribute to the alleviation of current and future flood and climate-related risks in Canada.
 
Institutional Investors Find Alpha In Climate Risk Matrices: Global Survey Finds (December 2020): by Natalia Moudrak, Kathryn Bakos, Joanna Eyquem, Hugh O’Reilly, Ashby Monk, Soh Young In. This report that presents results of a global institutional investor survey focused on understanding the methods to assess physical climate risk, the extent of formal training on physical climate risk received by the Boards of Directors, C-Suite officers and portfolio managers, and the utility of Climate Risk Matrices to aid portfolio managers in investment decisions.
 
Under One Umbrella: Practical Approaches for Reducing Flood Risk in Canada (November 2020): by Natalia Moudrak and Dr. Blair Feltmate. This report outlines practical approaches to limit flood risk in Canada, summarizing best practices from national guidelines and standards applicable to: Residents, governments, federal government and agencies, architects, developers, home builders, home renovation specialists, insurance brokers, mortgage lenders, mortgage brokers, real estate agents, home inspectors, retailers, landscaping professionals, commercial real estate owners/managers, conservation and watershed authorities, environmental not-for-profit organizations, neighbourhood associations, local community groups, local utility companies, institutional investors, and professional regulatory bodies.
 
Climate Change and the Preparedness of Canadian Provinces and Territories to Limit Flood Risk (August 2020): by Dr. Blair Feltmate, Marina Moudrak and Kathryn Bakos. This report examined the preparedness of provincial and territorial governments to minimize the negative consequences of current and future floods. It is the intent of this report to provide an informed perspective that will contribute to the alleviation of current and future flood and climate-related risks in Canada.
 
Factoring Climate Risk into Financial Valuation (March 2020): by Dr. Blair Feltmate, Natalia Moudrak, Kathryn Bakos and Brian Schofield. This report presents a practical means to factor climate change and extreme weather risk into financial valuation consistent with direction of the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) and Canada’s Expert Panel on Sustainable Finance (EPSF). This report will help institutional managers to guide investments, securities commissions to assess disclosure, and credit rating agencies to measure risk by incorporating the impacts of climate change into business analysis.
 
All of the above, plus additional resources are available on the Intact Centre On Climate Adaptation website at https://www.intactcentreclimateadaptation.ca/
 
 

Closing Remarks & Reminders

President Adrian reminded everyone that the next meeting will be Aug 30, in the evening on Zoom and will be the Online Auction Kick-Off including an NHL surprise video guest! As well, you can mark the date of Tuesday, Sept 21st on your calendar as plans are underway for an person event at the Edelweiss Tavern. 
 
Speakers
Aug 16, 2021 12:00 PM
**New** Speaker Series - Climate Change & the Environment
Aug 23, 2021 12:00 PM
Committee Meetings to be Scheduled by Committee Chairs
Aug 30, 2021 7:00 PM
Online Auction Kick Off
Sep 06, 2021
Labour Day Celebration
View entire list
Birthdays & Membership Anniversaries
Member Birthdays
Richard Bruckeder
August 15
 
Raj Saini
August 21
 
Join Date
Russ St. Louis
August 11, 2014
7 years
 
Sponsors