Climate Change Adaptation and the Low Carbon Economy in BC: Summary Report for Decision-makers

This report seeks to encourage dialogue about three major challenges that must be addressed if we are to pass on a sustainable world to our children:

The ENERGY challenge – our heavy reliance on oil will present significant challenges now that the era of cheap and easy oil has passed;

The CLIMATE CHANGE challenge – the abundance of heat-trapping greenhouse gas emissions, which we have pumped into the atmosphere, are changing our climate and threatening to destabilize the delicate balance that makes life on Earth possible;

The ECOSYSTEM challenge – the majority of the ecosystem services that nature provides are not currently being used in a sustainable manner.

We are currently exceeding the carrying capacity of the Earth and degrading the ecosystems we rely upon for life. We are running a substantial ecological deficit. (NB: For convenience, we routinely refer to these three challenges collectively as the sustainability challenge throughout this report, with the acknowledgement that sustainability as a concept can include a far more complex set of issues, including social justice).