Interactive Climate Action Planning Tool

Use this tool in conjunction with the Climate Leaders Playbook (“the Playbook”) https://bcclimateleaders.ca/. The Playbook identifies the practical tools and levers that local-government leaders have available to help them meet emissions reduction targets and describes each of the Big Moves in more detail.

Click here to try the planning tool.

Community Energy & Emissions Plan (CEEP)
A CEEP is a comprehensive, long-term plan to use municipal powers to help residents and businesses save energy, emissions, and money through every day choices and on big purchases.

When CEA facilitates your CEEP, we help:

• Identify your community's energy goals and GHG reduction targets
• Calculate your current energy demand and supply by sector
• Forecast your future energy demand based on growth statistics and the related GHG emissions
• Identify solutions and specific actions to meet your targets
• Identify supporting policy options to inform other key corporate strategies like an Official Community Plan

CEEP Quickstart Implementation
BC communities with populations under 75,000 are eligible for this program. Contact CEA for free technical support and policy implementation assistance thanks to the support of BC Hydro. We can help with policy templates, customization, and coaching through approval and implementation.  CEA also provides 1-2 days of implementation coaching to communities participating in the Community of Practice on an as-needed basis for up to six communities.

An ‘inventory’ of community-wide energy use and GHG emissions is a management tool to inform decisions about future actions. It has to be sufficiently accurate to determine the material sources of emissions and be easily reproduced regularly to assess progress. If the community is targeting to reduce GHGs X% by 20XX, knowing the baseline (2007), plan starting point (20XX) and projected business as usual (BAU) annual emissions to 20XX is critical to assess if the actions considered by the community will be sufficient to meet the target.

A key objective of the chosen methodology for the community inventory is to streamline various reporting requirements (CARIP, PCP, and others) and use the inventory to inform departmental decisions. Another objective is to align with other municipalities in order to facilitate benchmarking.

The final inventory produced is consistent with the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) Partners for Climate Protection (PCP) program and is designed to be replicated each year with consistent methodology.

PCP Milestone Submissions: As the Regional Climate Advisor for FCM PCP, CEA can coordinate and complete both corporate and community PCP Milestone submissions on behalf of the local government. Our team can also ensure the existing corporate inventory and methodology aligns with PCP requirements and update if needed.

A Climate Action Plan is a comprehensive and strategic approach to reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (commonly referred to as mitigation), preparing for the impacts of climate change (commonly referred to as adaptation) and supporting the long-term livability and prosperity of the community. Our approach is grounded in the belief that there is a global need for mitigation and a local need for adaptation and the interrelationship between the two components.

On the mitigation side, a Climate Action Plan addresses the key  sources of emissions; transportation, building (including energy efficiency and savings) and waste. As well as, land use, impacts of senior levels of government, and new technology. For adaptation, a Climate Action Plan will address priority climate risks and vulnerabilities and include the most effective actions for building local resilience to those risks.

Local governments have been responsible for planning mitigation, and increasingly adaptation in siloes. Not only is this a burdensome and costly approach, it runs the risk of building-in contradictory measures that lead to maladaptive or emissions-intensive actions and projects. The goal is to maximize benefits for residents and businesses while at the same time helping to avoid hazards, costs and disruptions associated with climate change impacts.

A Climate Lens Assessment is a requirement to access specific federal funding sources, including the Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program (ICIP), the federal co-funding source for CleanBC’s Clean Communities Fund.  The assessment is comprised of two components:  GHG Mitigation Assessment, and Climate Resilience Assessment.  The mitigation assessment is required for all projects, while a resilience assessment is generally required for projects with eligible cost of >$10 million.

GHG Mitigation Assessments examine the overall reduction (or increase) in GHGs over the lifetime of a project, inclusive of construction and operation.  Resilience Assessments identify vulnerabilities and employ risk management approaches to anticipate, prevent, withstand, respond to, and recover from climate change related disruptions and impacts.

Climate Lens Assessments can be used by local governments to estimate GHG reductions and climate risks from new or retrofit capital projects, inform their capacity to meet GHG targets, and drive further actions.

CEA has completed GHG Mitigation Assessments for several BC local governments as part of the first intake of the Clean Communities Fund, and is currently collaborating with the BC Climate Action Secretariat on developing an engagement campaign for local governments for the next phase of the Clean Communities Fund.