Inequalities and climate change adaptation solutions

In Quebec, climate projections indicate with high certainty that there will be a warming of average temperatures, more hot and cold extremes, and increases in short-duration extreme precipitation. Due to these findings, there is broad agreement that the necessary means must be taken to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and several organizations are implementing solutions to adapt to and strengthen resilience to climate change. 

At the same time, socio-economic inequalities with respect to income, gender, age, ethnocultural background and disabilities persist. However, more and more studies tend to show that there is a risk that some of the proposed adaptation options may lead to maladaptation and cause or exacerbate economic and quality-of-life inequalities between certain individuals, categories of individuals or regions.

• To review the knowledge on the inequality issues associated with climate change adaptation solutions and propose recommendations for an analysis framework adapted to Quebec

• To report on the impacts and vulnerabilities of inequalities that have been documented, mainly in Quebec and Canada

• To identify gaps in the scientific and grey literature as well as alternative approaches

• To explore the mechanisms and methods of analysis that have made it possible to respond to similar issues

• Identify adaptation solutions based on existing reviews.

• Identify existing conceptual frameworks and key texts on inequality issues associated with climate change adaptation solutions.

• Conduct interviews (preparation and execution) with specific organizations to complete and validate the information collected.

• Identify gaps in the literature and alternative approaches/Explore the mechanisms that have made it possible to respond to similar issues.

Inequality issues affecting the Quebec population have been documented for some climate change adaptation solutions (Figure 1—available in French only). Some categories of the population are particularly vulnerable to the inequalities produced by climate change adaptation solutions, including low-income households, seniors, people with reduced mobility, people who identify as women, people experiencing homelessness and some visible minority and immigrant communities.

Figure 1

Several mechanisms enable the identification of economic and quality-of-life inequalities, such as monitoring the property values of houses and distributive analyses on the physical and financial accessibility of certain adaptation solutions. Some lines of thought proposing alternative adaptation solutions have been identified in the literature as being able to reduce inequalities, such as the participation and collaboration of particularly vulnerable populations and social measures such as projects supporting community and affordable housing.

Despite considerable progress in recent years, research on inequalities related to climate change adaptation solutions is still lacking. Some solutions (such as blue spaces) or industries (agriculture, tourism) are poorly documented with respect to inequality issues, some populations and regions are less studied than others, and certain processes  may deserve more attention, such as methods for monitoring and evaluating adaptation solutions.

• Observatoire québécois des inégalités