Developing a collaborative climate resiliency and adaptation plan.Tristan Walker

In October 2022, the Town and MD of Pincher Creek collaborated with the Piikani Nation land department to begin developing a Climate Resiliency and Adaptation plan. This process was enabled due to funding provided by the Municipal Climate Change Action Center. The plan development focused on a stakeholder-driven methodology to identify key climate risks in the region and develop plans to adapt to those risks within a changing environment. The project was led by a team consisting of members from the Town, MD, regional emergency management organization, and Piikani Nation. The outputs included full climate models for the MD of Pincher Creek to identify what may change based on a 3-degree global warming level, an economic analysis of the cost of not adapting to climate change, and finally a risk assessment and adaptation plan. This presentation will describe the key outcomes, the process for developing them, and lessons learned that can be leveraged by other organizations looking to undertake similar processes.

Speaker: Tristan Walker, Municipal Energy Project Lead for the Town & Municipal District of Pincher Creek

Moderator: Gord Grimes

Tristan grew up in Northwest British Columbia where he developed a passion for playing within the vast natural playground. With a Master’s degree in sustainable energy, Tristan is keen to develop solutions within our way of life to sustain that natural playground so future generations get the opportunity to enjoy it the way we have. In his role with Pincher Creek, Tristan focuses most of his efforts on energy management activities such as energy audits, retrofits, and analysis to the tune of an 8% reduction in corporate GHG emissions over the last two years and a total reduction of $90,000 in utility spending annually. Further to this role, Tristan led the project team for the Climate Resiliency and Adaptation plan that sought to identify pressing climate risks as we move into the future with adaptation measures to address those risks. Currently, he continues to support the municipality in reducing utility costs and is working on implementing items identified in the adaptation plan.