Canada’s economy is at risk because of the effects of climate change. The large effect climate change will have will be seen in multiple aspects of our economy, most notably in the forestry and insurance sectors.

Much of Canada's economy relies on our abundance of natural resources. This can be exemplified through British Columbia’s (BC) reliance on forestry. BC’s forestry sector contributed an estimated $12.9 billion of the provincial GDP and accounted for 34% of the provincial exports (1). This sector is already experiencing the impact of climate change through the higher frequency of disturbances (wildfires, drought, severe storms and disease/insect attacks) and alterations to the timing of seasonal budding timing (1, 2). With the occurrence of hotter and longer summers driven by climate change, these disturbances will only increase (2, 3). Along with these climate-induced changes, it is predicted that higher temperatures and lower humidity will lead to lower productivity within the sector (1, 2).

Along with changes in Canada's climate, changes in weather patterns will lead to larger and more frequent storms which, along with the warming of oceans and melting of the polar ice caps, will lead to an increased frequency of flooding along Canada's coast lines (4, 5). This will put financial pressure on, not only the Canadian families and businesses within expanding flood areas, but the federal budget and insurance agencies in order to reduce these types of disasters (4, 5, 6). This will lead to an increase in tax revenue needed to support these reactive measures and higher interest rates for Canadians (6).