Le 5 octobre dernier, dans le cadre du colloque international Adaptation Futures 2023, Yannick Hémond, membre du comité scientifique de l’OCCAH et professeur à l’UQAM, a partagé son expertise lors d’une session consacrée aux interactions entre le changement climatique et le secteur de l’énergie. Cette session, modérée par Hydro-Québec, a réuni des spécialistes pour débattre des défis et des stratégies d’adaptation climatique pour les infrastructures énergétiques et la résilience des communautés.
Pour consulter le programme du colloque : Programme Adaptation Futures 2023
La conférence a exploré les différentes approches que les organisations énergétiques peuvent adopter, mettant en lumière l’importance de la diversité des réponses face à l’adaptation climatique dans le secteur de l’énergie. Les débats ont porté sur la nécessité de stratégies adaptatives innovantes et la recherche de métriques pour évaluer leur succès.
Plus d’information sur le colloque
Climate change and the energy sector: Roadmaps toward adaptation
Energy utilities face unique challenges in the ongoing context of climate change.
As owners and operators of large infrastructure portfolios, they are directly exposed to physical climate risks that are expected to be exacerbated in future decades. Moreover, energy utilities provide critical services to their customers. Resilience of the energy grid directly affects the climate vulnerability of communities. Finally, their climate adaptation strategies need to be aligned with the evolution of the energy system.
Given that energy utilities operate in a wide range of geographic, cultural, climatic, and economic contexts, they are expected to take different trajectories towards climate change adaptation. For example, some companies will favor a top-down, corporate-focused approach aligned with frameworks such as the Taskforce on Climate Financial Disclosure. Others will prefer to implement processes driven by climate data to trigger changes at the infrastructure or project level. In the absence of metrics to measure or define the success of adaptation, strategies that are most beneficial to achieve a high level of climate resilience can be challenged.
This session aims to discuss the challenges that the energy sector is facing and the strategies they adopt to adapt to climate change. The session will consist in a panel presentation of representatives from different energy organizations, moderated by Hydro-Québec. Each panelist will be invited to briefly present their approach and challenges toward climate adaptation. The objective of the panel will be to engage in thought-provoking discussions on the following questions:
• What are the best trajectories to increase climate resilience for the energy sector?
• How do the specificities of different organizations of the energy sector affect their adaptation strategies?
• How do your strategies benefit to climate change adaptation of the communities depending on your organization?
The expected outcomes of the session are to better understand the diversity of responses in the energy sector regarding climate adaptation and to gain insight on how different contexts trigger different adaptation trajectories.
Authors and Partner organizations
- Jean-Philippe Martin, Hydro-Québec
- Isabelle Chartier, Hydro-Québec
- Yann Chavaillaz, Hydro-Québec
- Jacinthe Clavet-Gaumont, Hydro-Québec
