After attending the 2026 BC Climate Resilience Summit on March 2-3, DRRN member Jen Walker agreed to share a summary and some reflections on this year’s event.
I was grateful to attend the BC Climate Resilience Summit 2026 at UBC’s Robson Square Campus on March 2nd and 3rd. This second annual summit is a legacy of the Understanding Risk BC symposiums which highlighted people and culture in the discussion of disaster risk.
The spirit of interdisciplinarity and all-of-society approach was kept alive with mixed partner panels, audience participation and momentum through a combination of short and deeper-dive presentation styles on timely topics. Kudos to Jessica Shoubridge and partners for keeping this going.
Day 1
After opening remarks, the first day kicked off with a presentation on the BC government’s provincial-scale Disaster and Climate Risk and Resilience Assessment (DCRRA), followed by an engineering perspective on regional risk assessments. The provincial representatives fielded questions on how this work would be supported (Indigenous Engagement Requirement funding and regional grants) and how the information could be translated to meaningful action at the household level (through the DCRRA Story map and Prepared BC). From an industry (including engineering) perspective, more standardised data and information-sharing (particularly about critical infrastructure) will be required for regional success.
This was followed by the introduction of a suite of tools for adaptation and decision support, including the climate risk platform CanAdapt, watershed-level cumulative effects modelling, health system response planning, urban biodiversity mapping, and an Indigenous‑led community impact assessment that helped to surface often overlooked societal risk.
We heard about the many ways AI could be harnessed for ‘good’ with respect to climate risk planning (specifically geohazard assessment), and how its own inherent risks were being considered from the perspective of ethics and professional responsibility. Questions and comments from the audience included concerns about the protection of Indigenous Knowledge and the environmental costs of AI.
We listened to how climate-driven losses are increasing the home insurance burden (forecast to rise by 5-7% annually and currently feeding back into homeowner premiums) and how this could—or perhaps should—shift to new shared mechanisms based on an emitter-pay model, whether legislated or litigated (i.e. through class action lawsuits). Interestingly, the attribution science behind litigation can often increase costs to community if the target is the local government and the class action is brought by citizens. More details can be found in the full report “Climate Damages & Canada’s Looming Home Insurance Crisis: Who Pays?” produced by Investors for Paris Compliance.
The day was capped by a powerful keynote presentation from the Mayor of Jasper, Alberta, about public (and personal) loss due to the wildfire of July 2024. He underscored how preparedness, inter‑agency collaboration, and support for community‑led recovery have resulted in a profound sense of community cohesion and resilience. The message of community was echoed in BC’s experience of the 2024 heat dome and in the experience of a small community’s commitment to climate resilience. Support for community hubs and socioeconomic stability were some of the many audience suggestions for long term disruption resilience.
Day 2
The second day of the summit kicked off with an earthquake-specific panel, featuring the DRRN’s Dr. Carlos Molina Hutt and colleagues. While their strongest messages included looking beyond life safety to post-earthquake operability/functional recovery and considering infrastructure other than buildings (i.e. going beyond the BC building code), feedback from the audience continued to centre around community resilience hubs as critical to recovery.
The theme of post-disaster functionality continued with a short film by the Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions (PICS) that suggested the province is still stuck in a reactive response posture, and that coordination is lacking to help break down silos and encourage a proactive, multihazard approach to risk reduction when it comes to critical infrastructure. An interesting perspective was shared by members of the healthcare system – that they are at once responsible for driving climate change and for taking care of those impacted by it. From that perspective, adapting to a changing climate is simply a responsible business practice.
Good governance dominated a conversation on flood risk management, with a federal representative presenting an emerging flood hazard model and a provincial representative facing questions about implementation of and funding for the BC Flood Strategy. The audience heard that improved floodplain mapping (to support local government decision-making), innovative funding models (in collaboration with the federal government and insurers) and consistent guidance (including for nature-based solutions) were all on the horizon. Several other examples of what is working (coastal restoration) and not-working (watershed-level governance) in the flood space were offered by the Tsleil-Waututh Nation and partners and the Lower Fraser Floodplains Coalition, followed by an outstanding and inspiring example of building back better in New York City (supported by an innovative funding strategy).
The afternoon session featured UBC research with a teaser from the film Trouble in the Headwaters followed by a presentation and Q&A with lead investigator Professor Younes Alila. In addition to the critical connection made between intact, functioning forests and disaster mitigation (including drought), this research revealed that the downstream costs of flooding far exceed the revenue generated by upstream logging. This story underscores the need for regional, landscape-level risk assessment, and the imperative that this data feeds back to shape provincial policy.
The focus then returned to wildfire resilience, with a personal story of the 2023 Downton Lake fire, and an exploration of what an all‑of‑society approach to wildfire could look like, with community‑driven resilience once again being a key goal. Fire weather prediction and AI were among the tools presented as potential solutions to support community-level decision-making.
Finally, insurance costs were again in the spotlight for the final presentation – with the theme of ‘who really pays’ returning. Acknowledging the likely increase in household, private and public costs, the panel stressed the need for the financial system to evolve along with climate adaptation strategies.
Overall, the issues that were discussed reflect what many of us already know – that climate risk in B.C. is multi‑hazard, systemic, and interconnected with society and the environment. There is clearly a need for stronger governance, sustained investment, Indigenous leadership, and consistency across tools and data systems. By bringing dedicated individuals together, the summit once again provided hope for a coordinated, province‑wide approach to disaster and climate resilience.
See the full agenda for a detailed breakdown of topics and presenters:
– Jen Walker, March 6, 2026
Header photo by BC Government.