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As climate change continues to have an impact on Nova Scotia and the rest of the world, a report from the provincial government identifies a new top risk and parts of the province that stand to have greater challenges or benefits in the coming decades.
The province released its updated climate change risk assessment in late December, the followup to the first assessment that was released in 2022. Using the most recent available climate data, it looks at risks for the 2050s and 2080s.
Along with heat extremes and diseases spread by mosquitoes, ticks and other animals, the latest assessment adds a new top threat facing the province for the 2050s: reduced water quality.
“Heavier rainfall and warmer temperatures may lower the quality of surface water, making it less safe and healthy,” says the report.
“For example, more blue-green algae may be seen growing in lakes.”
A need to adapt
Nova Scotia’s hot, dry summer and fall resulted in a rash of water-related issues, including drought, heightened wildfire risk and increased challenges for firefighting crews battling blazes.
The 2022 risk assessment predicted more rain and less snow for the province in the coming decades.
Concerns about water quality and high wind, which the report notes “may result in more damage to infrastructure like power transmission lines and cell phone towers,” join the ranks of other risks identified in the 2022 assessment, including inland flooding, sea-level rise and coastal flooding, more pests and diseases that could harm food production, and wildfire potential.
The report groups climate risks into five themes — disaster resilience, human health, environment, infrastructure, and economy and workers — which it says can help “identify what drives risk and where action can be taken to support adaptation.”
For example, reducing exposure risks for infrastructure could mean building where flooding is less likely to occur, while planting more trees is a way to help keep communities cooler as heat waves become more common and last longer.
Counties facing greatest risks
Another addition to this year’s risk assessment is an examination of how different parts of the province would experience climate change differently.
“This can help communities, first responders and municipalities with their adaptation planning and work,” it says.
Six counties expected to have a greater need to adapt to climate risks in the 2050s are Cape Breton, Colchester, Cumberland, Halifax, Hants and Pictou. The report says different factors contribute to the risk, although it provides little detail.
“Some counties, like Cape Breton and Halifax, have more people and infrastructure exposed to climate hazards, while Hants, Colchester and Cumberland are expected to see relatively more climatic change.”
Hants also finds itself on the list of counties that could see potential benefit from climate change, along with Annapolis, Guysborough, Kings and Queens.
Those benefits could include a longer season for summer tourism or growing food, a lesser need for heating and fewer freeze-thaw cycles that can damage infrastructure.
No one from the Department of Environment and Climate Change was available this week to comment on the report.
The next risk assessment is scheduled to be released in 2030, the same year the province is required by law to produce 80 per cent of its electricity from renewable sources and for coal-fired power plants to no longer be used for electricity generation.
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