Moving forward: Addressing climate change in Canadian marine planning and policy

Today’s governments face increasingly wicked challenges in concerns over the marine environment which are exacerbated by climate change. Canada’s sectoral approach to departmental mandates and twenty-five-year-old Oceans Act (1997) legislation have failed to incorporate climate change in marine planning. To conceptualize this problem, this study focuses on marine spatial planning (MSP) in British Columbia and examines the following research question: how to address the main barriers to the incorporation of climate change in MSP? The methodologies used include a literature review, document review, and case studies. The findings of this study suggest that there are some meta-level key strategies that can help set up more successful incorporation of climate change policy into MSP. These strategies include provisions in legislation, extensive policy guidance, and cross-collaborative governance structures.