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Ontario’s FAO says climate change’s effect on public transportation infrastructure to cost billions
September 22, 2022
By
The Canadian Press
Ontario’s financial watchdog says the effects of climate change are projected to cost the province an extra $1.5 billion a year on average in the next few years just to maintain public transportation infrastructure.
A report released on Sep. 22 by the Financial Accountability Office says that over the next nine years, maintaining that infrastructure would have cost $11 billion a year if the climate was stable, but climate-related costs will push it to about $13 billion by 2030.
The report says that over the long term, if global emissions peak by mid-century, climate hazards will increase infrastructure costs by $2.2 billion a year on average, without any climate adaptation, and if emissions instead continue rising beyond 2050, those costs will increase by $4.1 billion a year on average.
The FAO says that adapting transportation infrastructure to withstand extreme rainfall, extreme heat and freeze-thaw cycles would be much less expensive.
The report says that adaptation would add between $1.4 billion and $2.9 billion a year between now and the year 2100.
The FAO says the roads, bridges, large structural culverts and rail tracks owned by Ontario’s municipal and provincial governments are valued at $330 billion, with most of them owned by the municipalities.
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