Sussex Has A Climate Change Adaptation Plan!

Communities across New Brunswick are facing the effects of climate change. While the effects and experience differ for many communities, Sussex has developed and completed Phase I of its Climate Change Adaptation Plan. Our community has received funding through the Environmental Trust Fund to Complete a Municipal Climate Change Adaptation Plan in 2019. The Government of New Brunswick through its Climate Change Action Plan – “Transitioning to a Low-Carbon Economy” have indicated all cities and high risk municipalities who have experienced the impacts of climate change and flooding in their region of New Brunswick are required to have adaptation plans completed by 2020.

For Sussex, our Town, a risk assessment was completed to determine the most vulnerable areas of the Town using a function of severity and probability with input from members of the Town’s Climate Change Adaptation Steering Committee. A thorough analysis of climate change parameters is presented in the plan and this analysis is complimented with discussions on flood vulnerabilities.

This Plan will serve to increase community resilience to climate change by assigning mitigation actions with a short-, medium-, and long-term timeframe, a lead department to execute the adaptation actions, and a high level overview of probable costs or level of effort estimate to assist the Town in securing funding resources and for capital planning purposes.

The next step for this project will be to undertake community and stakeholder engagement in Phase II of this program and the Town will provide information on our upcoming engagement process to assist us and to provide for your input on our planning process in the not too distant future.