Canadian municipalities will need to shift their climate response plans into action and results if they mean to align with the country’s net-zero by 2050 target, a comprehensive survey of local climate plans concludes.

Across Canada, municipalities need to adopt and take action on ambitious net-zero goals, with action in mid-to-large size municipalities having “an important impact on achievement of national targets,” writes [pdf] the survey team at the Municipal Net-Zero Action Research Partnership (N-ZAP), a collaboration between the University of Waterloo, 11 other universities, national organizations like the Federation of Canadian Municipalities and ICLEI Canada, and various cities and towns.

Of 256 polled municipalities representing 69.5% of the total Canadian population, only 27% (62 municipalities) had pledged to achieve net-zero corporate emissions by 2050 or earlier—a target for reducing the emissions a municipality directly controls from its buildings, fleets, and energy use. And only 25.1% (55 municipalities) had set a target of net-zero by 2050 or earlier for community emissions from activities like residential, commercial, and industrial buildings, transportation, and community energy and electricity use.

N-ZAP called for improved emissions monitoring, more meaningful engagement with Indigenous rightsholders and governments, and a sharper focus on interventions that have the highest impact on reducing emissions. And it’s showing its work, posting the data on an open-source database.

Conducted between June and September 2023, the survey was open to all Canadian municipalities and will be repeated in 2027 to measure progress. It covered towns and cities from all 10 provinces but not yet in the territories.

“This limitation notwithstanding, the distribution of participating municipalities provides a fairly accurate portrait of Canada, with the majority of responses coming from Ontario, Quebec, and British Columbia,” N-ZAP says.

Strong On Plans, Weak On Progress

Among the respondents, 162 municipalities (63.3%) had developed climate action plans, 131 (51.2%) had set targets for reducing corporate emissions, and 119 (46.5%) had targets for community emissions.

But only 30% of those targets were aligned with Canada’s net-zero by 2050 target, N-ZAP found, and implementation has been slow.

At the time of the survey, “only 21.8% of respondents had made progress towards achieving their corporate targets, and only 15.6% had made progress towards achieving their community targets.”

On average, 70% of municipalities across the country have either implemented or are working on a climate action plan. In British Columbia and the Maritimes, 100% have plans. Elsewhere, that figure stands at 93% in Ontario, 80% in Manitoba, 73% in Quebec, and 71% in Alberta. Only 33% of municipalities in Saskatchewan have climate plans in place.

Large municipalities with populations over 100,000 showed a “notably higher” inclination to adopt plans corporate and community emissions targets, the survey found. Some 39% of large municipalities had set corporate emissions targets, compared to six to 12% of smaller municipalities with populations below 30,000. More than three-quarters of large municipalities had set community emissions targets, compared to only 18% of communities with populations under 10,000.

“These findings demonstrate the need for more resources and training targeting small and medium-sized communities, focusing on collaborative approaches to establishing community emissions goals and working towards achieving them,” N-ZAP writes.

Inventories Support Progress

Out of the respondents, 136 municipalities (53.1%) had created GHG emissions inventories. “Overall, 84.2% of large municipalities, 59.0% of mid-size municipalities, and 38.0% of small municipalities had created GHG inventories,” N-ZAP writes, with larger municipalities once again more likely to take stock of their emissions.

The report finds that keeping an inventory supports progress towards emissions targets. “Among the municipalities tracking their GHG emissions, 33 were making progress toward their corporate emissions targets, 17 had made progress in achieving their community targets, and 23 had made progress towards their combined targets,” N-ZAP writes. But many the municipalities have not been updating their community emissions inventories on a regular basis.

The survey asked municipalities to specify the activity sectors where they were taking steps to reduce GHG emissions. The responses pointed to buildings, energy, transport, and waste, sectors where they have most control, N-ZAP writes. “In contrast, agriculture, forestry, and other land use (AFOLU) and industrial process and product use (IPPU) were the sectors reported least by the participating municipalities.”

The communities consistently engaged with staff and elected officials to plan and implement local climate actions, N-ZAP writes. But not as much with neighbourhood associations or non-profits, Indigenous rightsholders, or other levels of government. The report calls that “an important gap at both the planning and the implementation levels.”

N-ZAP says its analysis of climate interventions across activity sectors shows that “local governments are predominantly relying on policy levers that promote voluntary action to reduce community GHG emissions,” with awareness building and education among the most frequently-adopted. But those voluntary measures may fall short of “instigating the level of changes needed for widespread emissions reductions.” That means more support is needed to allow municipalities to undertake “robust interventions within activity sectors beyond their direct control.”