Course #2. Assessing and addressing climate change impacts in the mining sector
Last year, the Mining Institute of Canada identified $140 billion in potential Canadian mineral project investments over the next decade, translating into billions in investments nationally. Shifting climate norms and extremes will impact the entire mine life-cycle. These impacts can have severe consequences on liability, asset value, efficiency, economic performance, and regulatory compliance. The robust assessment of climate risks and opportunities will safeguard the social, environmental, and economic benefits stemming from investments.
Climate change demands new approaches. Mining companies are already experiencing a range of climate-related disruptions. Understanding is increasing about the implications of a changing climate on businesses financing, operations, and legal liability. One-third of Canadian mining companies consider climate change a risk for their business and are interested in information and tools to identify and act on risks. Investors and shareholders are increasingly requesting information on the management of climate risk.
Taught by leading engineers and scientists in the fields of climate change and infrastructure risk, this training discusses trends and projections in climate change and impacts on the mining sector. Integrating lessons and examples from case studies, it will lead participants through available tools and frameworks to appropriately assess and manage climate risk. Participants will have an understanding of climate trends and be able to identify, understand, and apply available climate data sources. They will develop an appreciation for the impacts that climate shifts have on mine operations and planning from diverse perspectives including investment, asset, and risk management, financial planning, and legal liability. Participants will have knowledge of frameworks and tools that can be applied to assess climate risks and identify resilience solutions. Lastly, they will be provided guidance and examples to support communication of climate risks, strengthening their capacity to present risks and recommend actions.| Level: | Foundation |
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| Prerequisites: | None |
| Language: | English |
| Duration: | 1 day (2 April) |
| Price: | US$275 |
| Min/Max: | 10-50 |
| Instructor(s): | Heather Auld, Principle Climate Scientist, Risk Sciences International (Canada) Joel Nodelman, Principle/CEO, Nodelcorp Consulting Inc. (Canada)
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Heather Auld is the Principal Climate Scientist at Risk Sciences International (RSI). She has over 37 years of experience in the fields of climate, meteorology and climate change science and adaptation. She spent over 32 years with Environment and Climate Change Canada as an engineering climatologist, climate change adaptation expert, weather forecaster, manager and operational meteorology instructor. Heather has significant experience in providing climate and weather services and research, including engineering codes and standards, transportation, water resources, environmental, air quality, energy, northern, natural resource and other sectors/issues. For more than 26 years, Heather extensively researched and developed engineering climate and climate change design values for the National Building Code of Canada, various Canadian Standards Association standards. She has supported PIEVC engineering risk assessments across Canada and internationally, and has developed climate change adaptation tools, managed environmental assessment programs, provided expert analyses and testimony to several weather disaster inquiries and led the development of an internationally recognized climate hazards web Portal site to support disaster management planning. Heather has served on expert teams with the World Meteorological Organization, UN Strategy for Disaster Risk Reduction, World Federation of Engineering Organizations, as lead author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and represented Canada on delegations to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity. She has published many peer reviewed articles.
Joel Nodelman is a professional engineer with over 38 years of progressive experience in engineering and management of energy, environment, climate change and sustainable development projects. Mr. Nodelman is a gifted speaker, facilitator and educator teaching engineering courses in sustainable development and engineering management at the University of Alberta for fifteen years. Throughout his career Joel’s work has had a significant focus on risk management. His activities in climate change adaptation evolved from this focus. Joel was an active contributor to Engineers Canada work on engineering assessment of the vulnerability of Canadian infrastructure to climate change. This included technical advisory services to seven vulnerability assessments conducted under the auspices of the Engineers Canada initiative. He has had a central role in the drafting and ongoing refinement of the PIEVC Engineering Protocol for assessing the engineering vulnerability of public infrastructure to climate change. Joel was the principle facilitator on the vulnerability assessment for Ontario Power Transmission System during which he successfully facilitated project workshops remotely via web-based meetings. He has facilitated numerous vulnerability assessments, including for northern ice roads and for regional watersheds.
Roger Rempel is an environmental engineer with over 20 years of experience in environmental assessment, climate change vulnerability assessment, quantitative risk assessment, environmental systems modeling and public consultation. He has conducted and managed assessments investigating emerging concerns such as climate change vulnerability for critical infrastructure, accidental chemical release modeling, water quality and runoff modeling.
Roger has conducted climate change impact assessments and served as technical advisor to a number of multi-disciplinary study teams assessing public infrastructure and related components for vulnerability to climate change impacts and extreme events. He conducted climate change impact workshops for Canadian impact assessors to define climate data requirements for modelling practitioners within Canada’s Prairie Regional Adaptation Collaborative (PRAC), and has conducted scoping assessments and pilot applications of new climate change impact assessment tools for municipal planning, water demand forecasting and extreme runoff management.
Roger has worked repeatedly with Engineers Canada’s Public Infrastructure Engineering Vulnerability Committee, assisting Engineers Canada in finalizing and periodic revision of its PIEVC Protocol. Roger is an instructor for Engineers Canada’s PIEVC Protocol, conducting workshops to engineers and climate agencies on how to apply the PIEVC Protocol, and has taught these workshops throughout Canada and internationally. In June of 2016, Roger became one of the first six Professional Engineers in Canada to achieve Engineers Canada’s new Infrastructure Resiliency Professional certification.
Al Douglas is the Director at the Ontario Centre for Climate Impacts and Adaptation Resources, located at Laurentian University in Sudbury. He has been working in the field of climate change impacts and adaptation for 15 years and has partnered with many different organizations in Ontario and Canada to develop and deliver adaptation resources and strategies. Al specializes in facilitating adaptation planning at the local and watershed level and has expertise in climate science; climate change impact, vulnerability and risk assessment; policy development and adaptation planning in natural resource sectors. Al has extensive experience in the mining sector, including multiple projects examining climate risks and adaptation opportunities in the sector.
He has had the privilege of contributing content to 2 Canadian National Assessments of climate change and acted as an expert reviewer for the last 2 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change assessment reports. Most recently, Al was the co-chair of the National Climate Change Adaptation symposium held in Ottawa in April 2016, and is an Advisory Panel Member for the Canadian Standards Association (CSA) Online Adaptation Training Module.