Keynote address at Ontario Climate Consortium’s Inaugural Climate Change Research Symposium (speech notes)

The speech emphasizes that climate change is no longer a specialized environmental issue but a cross-sectoral risk affecting national security, health, and infrastructure. It highlights the need to rethink worst-case scenarios as temperature increases may exceed previous estimates, and argues that Canada requires a national adaptation approach to move beyond piecemeal provincial efforts. The author calls for 'climate proofing' infrastructure and using tax policy lessons from the fossil fuel sector to attract private investment into resilience.

• Climate change has evolved from a specialized environmental concern into a cross-sectoral risk impacting national security, human health, agriculture, trade, infrastructure, and transport.
• Recent modeling scenarios suggest that global temperature increases may reach 4.5 to 6 degrees Celsius, necessitating an urgent rethink of worst-case scenarios as climate change is progressing faster than predicted a decade ago.
• There is a significant funding gap for climate resilience; the estimated annual cost to 'climate-proof' planned global infrastructure projects between now and 2030 is approximately $700 billion per year.
• Canada lacks a coherent national climate adaptation strategy, resulting in a piecemeal approach where different jurisdictions operate independently without a unified framework to avoid duplication.
• Canadian federal policy lacks coherence, as the government spends roughly $800 million annually on fossil fuel subsidies, which may weaken the objectives of its $9 billion climate mitigation programs.
• The author suggests that tax instruments used to attract investment in the oil sands and mining sectors, such as Accelerated Capital Cost Appreciation and flow-through shares, could be adapted to attract private sector financing for climate resilience.

APA

Vaughan, S. (2013). Keynote address at Ontario Climate Consortium’s Inaugural Climate Change Research Symposium (speech notes). International Institute for Sustainable Development. https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/speech_scott_vaughan_may_13_2013.pdf

Chicago

Vaughan, Scott. Keynote address at Ontario Climate Consortium’s Inaugural Climate Change Research Symposium (speech notes). International Institute for Sustainable Development, 2013. https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/speech_scott_vaughan_may_13_2013.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Vaughan |first1=Scott |title=Keynote address at Ontario Climate Consortium’s Inaugural Climate Change Research Symposium (speech notes) |publisher=International Institute for Sustainable Development |date=13 May 2013 |url=https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/speech_scott_vaughan_may_13_2013.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{vaughan2013keynote, author = {Vaughan, Scott}, title = {{Keynote address at Ontario Climate Consortium’s Inaugural Climate Change Research Symposium (speech notes)}}, institution = {International Institute for Sustainable Development}, year = {2013}, month = may, url = {https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/speech_scott_vaughan_may_13_2013.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }