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

Scott Vaughan's keynote address at the Ontario Climate Consortium’s Inaugural Climate Change Research Symposium discusses the urgent need for integrated climate adaptation strategies, the economic risks of non-linear temperature increases, and the necessity of policy coherence in government spending.

• Recent modeling for the third U.S. National Climate Assessment suggests that worst-case scenarios must be urgently re-evaluated, as temperature increase scenarios now include ranges of 4.5 to 5 and an outer margin of 6 degrees Celsius, far exceeding previous upper bounds of 0.5 to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
• There is a significant risk of non-linear and spiraling economic costs associated with global temperature increases of 3, 4, or 5 degrees Celsius, a view supported by the IMF head Christine Legarde, who described climate change as the most urgent economic challenge of the 21st century.
• The cost of 'climate proofing' planned global infrastructure projects is estimated at approximately $700 billion per year, which would require roughly double the total amount of all current climate-related spending.
• Canada lacks a coherent national climate adaptation approach, currently relying on a piecemeal system of provincial and federal efforts, such as carbon taxes in B.C., intensity targets in Alberta, and sector-by-sector regulations in Ottawa.
• Canadian federal policy lacks coherence, as the government spends roughly $800 million annually on fossil fuel subsidies—including tax breaks for the oil sands and mining sectors—which may weaken the objectives of its $9 billion investment in climate mitigation programs.
• The federal government's sector-by-sector regulatory approach to mitigation is estimated by the IISD to cost $35 billion by 2030.

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} }