Some of Canada's greatest vulnerabilities to climate change lie in its coastal zones, which are home to a concentrated population (38.3 percent of Canadians lived within 20 km of a coast as of 2001, on just 2.6 percent of the country's total area), economic centers, and valuable ecosystems.

The two great threats to coastal zones are sea-level rise and larger and more-frequent storm surges, which can destroy property, erode coastal land, salinate aquifers, and permanently flood low-lying areas.

This study, a background report for the National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy's comprehensive study Paying the Price: the Economic Impacts of Climate Change for Canada, published in September 2011, quantifies the potential economic impacts, combining a physical model of sea-level rise and storm-surge flooding with socioeconomic analysis and a review of existing research and policies related to climate impacts and adaptation.

The study estimates that annual economic damages to Canada's coastal areas from sea-level rise and storm surge inundation will range from [templates/sei/includes/publications.php] .6 billion to .4 billion (in 2008 Canadian dollars) by the 2020s, and .3 billion to .1 billion by the 2080s – the equivalent, at that point, of 0.5 to 3.0 percent of the corresponding year's GDP. The role of climate change in those damages varies dramatically depending on the climate and socioeconomic scenario chosen, from [templates/sei/includes/publications.php] .0 billion to .6 billion by the 2080s.

Read more about the NRTEE climate change costs project »