• not enough staff with time or expertise to carry out the plan
• insufficient budget for implementation
• competing priorities postpone implementation
• lack of support from leadership for adaptation action
• siloed municipal departments preventing necessary collaboration
• unclear roles and responsibilities, resulting in adaptation falling through the cracks
• lack of explicit alignment with other municipal plans, policies and processes

This tip sheet will help you answer:

• How can our municipality stay committed to climate adaptation over time amidst changing and competing priorities?
• How can our municipality keep people engaged and supportive if climate adaptation results are slow to materialize?
• What processes can help us effectively implement multiple climate adaptation initiatives? 

Getting started 

Maintain momentum you started in your climate risk assessment and adaptation plan. 

Continuing the energy, engagement and enthusiasm generated when creating your climate adaptation plan is essential to making sure your efforts do not lose steam.

How can we turn our climate adaptation plan into meaningful and manageable action?

Here are some tips to help you get started.

Reconvene those involved in the climate risk assessment and adaptation planning process.

The understanding, commitment and energy built during the development of your climate adaptation plan are valuable and important to carry forward even once the plan is completed. Build momentum in implementation by inviting those who participated in the climate risk assessment and adaptation planning to continue participating in a lighter, recurring format. This can be done through, for example:

• scheduling quarterly check-ins or seasonal meetings
• sharing new opportunities or funding programs for climate adaptation
• sharing opportunities for integrating climate adaptation into other projects, systems and processes

Aim for progress, not perfection.

Start by identifying actions from your plan that you can implement right away—even if they are small. These early or “quick” wins help build confidence and demonstrate that the plan is more than just a document.

Examples of actions that may have lower barriers include:

• building on existing work (e.g., integrating climate adaptation into a project that is still in the planning or early stages)
• making small changes to your asset operations, for example, doing visual culvert inspections before storms
• planting shade trees in parks and public spaces
• identifying a public facility that can serve as a cooling centre and creating an operations plan to ensure you’re ready for extreme heat events

Establish enthusiasm and accountability.

Acknowledge and celebrate any climate adaptation actions taken, even if they are small. This keeps people motivated and accountable, which can help make sure that implementation doesn’t fall through the cracks over time. Establishing accountability might look like:

• regularly sharing updates with stakeholders, community members and others involved in the plan
• in council meetings or newsletters, acknowledging staff, partners and community members who are helping drive climate adaptation actions
• providing regular updates in project dashboards or reports

Communicate often.

Ongoing communication can help identify and address potential challenges early and keep those implementing your climate adaptation plan aligned. Regular communication can also help maintain motivation when it creates opportunities to celebrate the progress made. Ongoing communication in your municipality could look like:

• quarterly check-ins with project teams
• internal newsletters or updates to council
• public updates via community bulletins or social media

Share successes and lessons-learned.

Identify and tell local and regional success stories to show that actions can make a difference and provide examples of implementation. Sharing success stories within your organization and learning from others can inspire and motivate your team and others involved, showing that effective climate adaptation is achievable and beneficial. It can also help develop a shared purpose.

Importantly, telling stories about what is working and what is not helps normalize the idea that climate adaptation is a learning process. This type of storytelling could look like:

• hosting a lunch-and-learn to share progress made on one of your climate adaptation plan actions
• publishing a short article or reflection in your municipal newsletter about the impact of a climate adaptation action
• sharing challenges with colleagues and brainstorming ideas on what to try next  

Tip: The Green Municipal Fund’s Guide: Municipal Climate Change Staff offers suggestions on ways to show progress, celebrate success and track contributions.

Share the responsibility of implementation within your organization. 

Implementing your climate adaptation plan will work better if many people share the responsibility. When different departments and staff members are involved, more people will support the plan, more will learn how to do the work and the implementation can continue even when staff changes happen. Building climate resilience should feel like a shared priority.

How can we ensure implementation continues even if staff changes or priorities shift?

Here are some tips to help you get started.

Build understanding of why climate adaptation matters.

When people within your organization see how climate risks affect their day-to-day responsibilities, they are more likely to support and participate in carrying out the climate adaptation plan.  

Explore Tips for building the foundation for municipal climate adaptation for more support on how to help staff and council build this understanding.

The process of building understanding can begin with current staff. Then, as new staff are hired, ask that they review the climate risk assessment, adaptation plan and any other relevant documents as part of the onboarding process. In this way, they will become familiar with your adaptation goals and responsibilities.

Outline roles and responsibilities.

Once people within your organization understand that they have a role in advancing climate adaptation efforts, it can be helpful to develop structures that clarify who is responsible for implementing, supporting and monitoring different actions in the plan. Doing so helps maintain progress even if the person in the role changes. For example:

• Create a table that lists a role or department responsible for each of the actions identified in your climate adaptation plan.
• Include tasks related to climate adaptation in new job descriptions.   

Read Tip sheet: Start preparing for climate risk assessment and adaptation plan for more support on bringing together knowledge, skills and experience in climate adaptation work.

Involve people outside your organization.

The relationships you have with others can bring much-needed capacity, tools and know-how to support your climate adaptation efforts.

How do we bring in the support, capacity and collaboration needed to implement our climate adaptation plan?

Here are some tips to help you get started.

Work with others doing climate adaptation work.

Involving partners early in implementation can also foster long-term support. Collaborating on shared goals can increase impact, reduce duplication and make implementation more manageable. Here are some ways to work with others on implementing your climate adaptation actions:

• partnering with a neighbouring municipality on joint wildfire evacuation training
• working with a neighbouring municipality on shared infrastructure upgrades
• working with a local nonprofit to support engagement and outreach with the community members they represent
• reaching out to regional governments, Indigenous communities or academic institutions for tools and expertise   

For more tips on working with others to advance climate adaptation efforts, read Tip sheet: Start collaborating on municipal climate adaptation.

To learn more about working with equity-deserving groups specifically, explore GMF’s Factsheet: Applying an Indigenous inclusion lens to climate adaptation and Factsheet: Why equity matters in municipal climate adaptation.

Next steps

An important part of implementing your climate adaptation plan is using it to inform how your municipality sets priorities, delivers services and makes decisions. For support in getting started on embedding your climate adaptation plan into your existing systems, processes and plans, read Tip sheet: Start weaving climate adaptation into your municipality’s everyday activities. In addition, your approach to implementing your climate adaptation plan should also consider how you will monitor, report on and learn from your efforts. Tip sheet: Start tracking and evaluating your climate adaptation efforts offers tips for getting started.

Explore the Climate-Ready Communities Assessment Tool for additional insight and support in implementing your climate risk assessment and adaptation plan. You can use the tool to evaluate your existing climate adaptation efforts, pinpoint areas for improvement and chart a clear plan for strengthening your community’s adaptation efforts.  

This tip sheet will help you answer:  

• How do we gain council support for climate adaptation amidst competing priorities?
• How can we draft effective climate adaptation policies with limited staff and funds? 

Getting started

Build council support. 

Having council’s support for climate adaptation means council has acknowledged that climate change will have undesirable impacts on the community and made a commitment to do something about it.  

How do you get council’s support for climate adaptation efforts when they have other priorities or don’t see climate adaptation as one?

Here are some tips to help you get started.

1. Identify council’s level of understanding of climate risks and adaptation.

Determine your council's current understanding of climate risks and appetite for climate adaptation. For example, are they supportive, resistant or overwhelmed? Understanding their perspectives will help you tailor your approach. 

Resources such as Reacclimates Building a Social Mandate for Climate Action—A Playbook for Accelerating Public Engagement and GMF’s Talking it through: Guide for local government staff on climate adaptation may help you identify council’s understanding and perspective.

 

Identify what motivates council members and what barriers they face. For example, do they need external funding to support initiatives? Addressing these factors can help build support.  

2. Build council’s understanding of why climate adaptation matters.

With an understanding of how your council currently views climate adaptation, you can begin to build their understanding in a way that resonates with them. At a high level, this is about helping council understand how climate risks impact community priorities. For example:

Community priority	Examples of associated climate impacts
Public health and safety	Heatwaves can have harmful effects on physical health, particularly for vulnerable populations.
Economic stability	Wildfires, particularly when they are near urban areas, can disrupt local economies by damaging infrastructure.
Infrastructure resilience	Flooding can stress or destroy infrastructure.
Environmental quality	Droughts can harm local ecosystems, leading to loss of biodiversity and degradation of natural assets.
Reliable and affordable service delivery	The cost to maintain levels of service when faced with climate hazards will significantly increase if systems and infrastructure are not proactively built to adapt to the hazards.

 

For many municipalities it can be helpful to also communicate the real financial impact of not adapting to climate change. The Canadian Climate Institute’s report series, The Costs of Climate Change, contain key insights you can use in your communication with council. For example:  

• Damage Control: Reducing the costs of climate impacts in Canada reports that for every $1 spent on adaptation measures today, $13-$15 will be returned in direct and indirect benefits in the coming years. Messaging about the financial benefits of being proactive may be effective for council members who lean toward supporting climate adaptation.
• Under Water: The Costs of Climate Change for Canada’s Infrastructure reports that flood damage to homes and buildings could increase from $60 million to $300 million. Messages showing the cost of inaction may resonate with council members who are still weighing the urgency or value of investing in climate adaptation.  

ICLEI’s Cost of Doing Nothing:  A Toolbox for Building a Local Business Case for Adaptation can help you assess the costs of doing nothing in your municipality’s local context. 

Additional support for building council’s understanding can be found at GMF’s Talking it through: Guide for local government staff on climate adaptation. Check out the discussion guide and the customizable PowerPoint template.  

 

3. Help council understand their role and what they can do.  

Council’s role in climate adaptation is to define desired objectives, set direction through policy and other directives and then to allocate resources for implementation of policy and directives. Staff are responsible for determining the most effective and efficient way to implement council’s direction. Examples of council directives related to climate adaptation include:

• Conduct a climate risk assessment and develop a community climate action plan.
• Enhance and maintain green infrastructure, including natural assets.
• Implement zoning and building codes that improve climate resilience.
• Engage with the public to inform an understanding of impacts and priorities.
• Report on progress and risks annually.
• Assess climate risk for all new capital requests.
• Leverage funding and partnerships.

If you aren’t sure where to start, look at examples from other communities near you to see what has been successful. This can provide inspiration and practical ideas for your council. 

Develop climate adaptation policies. 

Developing effective climate adaptation policies is key to ensuring long-term resilience.

How can we create and implement policies that effectively address the impacts of climate change on our community?

Here are some tips to help you get started.

1. Integrate climate adaptation into existing policies and planning processes.

This approach is about embedding climate adaptation considerations into all aspects of municipal operations. Ideally, you have already done a risk assessment and climate adaptation plan to understand what hazards and impacts you need to adapt to and how to go about making some changes. After that, you are in a good position to review current policies and regulations such as zoning bylaws, building codes and emergency management plans to identify where climate adaptation fits in. For example,

• Zoning regulations can be updated to prevent development in flood-prone areas and encourage the use of green infrastructure.
• Building standards related to heat resilience can be developed for new construction and renovations.
• Emergency preparedness and response plans can be updated to consider anticipated climate changes and their local impacts.  

2. Develop new climate adaptation policies  

If you can’t find ways to integrate climate adaptation into existing policies and programs, creating new ones can help fill gaps. It is a good idea to start this process by setting clear climate adaptation objectives that reflect the context and priorities of your community. Some examples include: 

Policy area	Example of associated objective
Infrastructure	Keep roads, bridges and water systems in good shape to handle extreme weather.
Green spaces	Create more green spaces like parks, gardens and green roofs in urban areas to help manage rainwater and keep the town cooler. Protect important ecosystems, like forests and wetlands, to help them adapt to local climate changes so they can continue to benefit your community.
Involve community	Run programs to help residents understand climate change and what they can do about it. This could be through community events, school activities or simple flyers.
Emergency preparedness	So everyone knows what to do during weather-related emergencies, develop plans for responding to and recovering from extreme events, like floods or heatwaves.

 

Once you have defined objectives for your policy, draft policy statements that provide direction, and outline the required and desired approach to achieving these objectives.  

Explore the Climate Caucus Resources Library for examples of motions, bylaws, council reports and briefing notes for municipal climate initiatives. 

Next steps

Council support and climate adaptation policies are important parts of building the core of your climate adaptation efforts—people, partnerships and governance. For more support to get started on strengthening people, partnerships and governance, explore the following tip sheets:

• Tip sheet: Start resourcing your municipality for climate adaptation
• Tip sheet: Start collaborating on municipal climate adaptation
• Tip sheet: Start involving diverse voices in municipal climate adaptation

Explore the Climate-Ready Communities Assessment Tool for additional insight and support. You can use the tool to evaluate your existing climate adaptation efforts, pinpoint areas for improvement and chart a clear plan for strengthening your community’s adaptation efforts

This tip sheet will help you answer:  

• How can we identify and develop the collaborations needed for our climate adaptation efforts?  

Getting started

Map your network.

Mapping your municipality’s network means identifying whom you have connections with outside of your organization. This helps you see where you are already collaborating and find new opportunities to work with others.

How do you make sure you have the network you need to do climate adaptation work?  

Here are some tips to help you get started.

1. Examine existing collaborations.

A good way to start understanding where, how and with whom your organization is already collaborating is simply to ask those you work with. Start by setting up short meetings, sending out an email or putting out a survey to get insights from your colleagues into the context of the collaboration and the potential to work together on climate adaptation efforts. For example, consider asking:

• Who have you worked with, or are working with, outside your organization?  
• What have you worked on, or are working on, with them? What have the outcomes been?
• Who within your organization initiated and/or manages the relationship?  

2. Identify new partnership opportunities.

Identifying potential opportunities for collaboration on climate adaptation involves recognizing those already engaged in climate adaptation initiatives and who else might be affected by climate change. For example,

Who is already engaged in climate adaptation initiatives?  

• Community groups and Indigenous communities may be actively involved in climate adaptation efforts by, for example, developing their understanding of how community members are affected by and are responding to climate hazards.
• Academic institutions (e.g., universities, research centres) may be researching or conducting pilot projects related to climate adaptation.
• Regional, provincial and territorial governments and neighbouring municipalities may have climate adaptation plans and initiatives in place.
• Non-profit organizations and conservation authorities may offer awareness-building programs related to, for example, emergency response or ecosystem preservation.  

Who else might be impacted by climate change? Some examples include:

• vulnerable populations: Low-income communities, the elderly and young people and those with  health issues can be at higher risk of climate impacts than others.
• farmers and agricultural workers: Climate change can impact water availability and soil health, which in turn affects crops.
• healthcare providers: Heatwaves put a strain on healthcare systems.
• local industries or businesses: Climate hazards may make a community a less desirable place to visit or stay, impacting sectors like tourism, real estate, utilities and natural resources. 

Work in collaboration. 

Effective collaboration requires ongoing communication. Collaboration also benefits from shared understanding, mutual respect and reciprocity. All of this can take time, energy and resources, which may already be in short supply.  

How do we work in collaboration in a meaningful way that works for all of us?  

Here are some tips to help you get started.

1. Focus on building relationships.

Strong relationships are required before meaningful collaboration can occur. Relationship-building is not a one-time task. It requires time to get to know your potential collaborators, effort to understand what matters to them and actions to build trust. This is particularly important when working with local and regional First Nations, Métis, Inuit and urban Indigenous Peoples communities and organizations. Once there is a sound relationship, the next step is to reach out about possible collaborations. 

Explore Factsheet: Advancing government-to-Nation relationships for more support on building meaningful relationships with First Nation communities.

 

2. Start small.

Begin with small, manageable projects to build trust, gain experience working together and demonstrate the value of collaboration. Small beginnings help all partners understand how to best work together in the ongoing process of climate adaptation. One of the best ways to involve potential partners and collaborators is to work together to identify the impacts of climate change on the community and potential actions that could be taken to manage impacts. Involving partners from the onset of your climate adaptation work helps make sure the results of your efforts are informed by diverse perspectives, in turn increasing the likelihood partners will provide support for implementation. 

Read Tip sheet: Start assessing your local climate risks and Tip sheet: Start climate adaptation planning to learn more about working together to identify climate change impacts and potential adaptation actions.

 

3. Tailor your approach.

Partnerships and collaborative efforts take different forms, based on what is needed for the project and the interests of the parties. Some examples include: 

Type of partnership or collaboration	Example in climate adaptation
Workshops and brainstorming sessions     These are interactive sessions where team members can share ideas, solve problems and develop strategies collaboratively. These can be done in person or virtually.       Sessions are organized as needed by a lead organization. Participants provide input but do not typically make decisions.	A municipality invites representatives from several stakeholder organizations to participate in a workshop to identify the impacts of climate change on the community.
Working committees  These are formal groups developed to complete or inform specific tasks or projects. Members bring diverse skills and perspectives to achieve common goals.  The terms of reference are often documented to clarify responsibilities, decision-making processes, resourcing and expectations regarding committee participation.	A municipality invites representatives from neighbouring First Nations and community organizations to join a working committee that will inform the development of a community climate adaptation plan. Participants agree to attend—and be engaged during—four half-day workshops, in addition to reviewing documents and providing feedback.
One-on-one efforts  Individual collaborations can be highly effective for engaging partners with specific or unique considerations or tackling specific tasks that require focused attention.  This type of collaboration may be formalized through an agreement or may be informal and ad-hoc.	A municipality engages a neighbouring First Nation, providing resources to knowledge keepers who share valuable insights about how lands in their territory have adapted in response to climate change over time.
Partnerships and alliances  Organizations can form strategic partnerships to leverage each other's strengths and resources for mutual benefit.  Each organization maintains its own autonomy and jurisdiction (where applicable) and can choose to collaborate when its interests align.	A municipality forms a partnership with a local university to conduct a community- scale climate risk assessment. They work together to define a project scope that meets both the municipality's and the university's needs.
Joint ventures  Two or more organizations collaborate on a specific project or initiative, sharing resources, risks and rewards.  The terms (e.g., resources that will be contributed, roles and responsibilities, governance) of a joint venture should be documented in a legally binding agreement.	Two neighbouring municipalities combine resources to build flood protection infrastructure that will benefit both communities.
Communities of practice  Groups of people who share a common interest or profession come together to share knowledge, experience and best practices.  Networks built through communities of practice may be a source of other types of partnerships as needed to advance specific initiatives.	Municipal staff who are championing climate adaptation in their organizations form a regional community of practice with their peers to promote shared learning and action. The community of practice meets quarterly, rotating hosting responsibilities among member communities and maintaining an online forum where members can share resources, provide updates and work through challenges between meetings.

 

4. Develop a shared understanding of a “good” partnership.

Work with your partner to be clear about mutual expectations and how you can best work together for success. You might cover topics like:

• your shared objectives
• resources being committed, including in-kind contributions like time and expertise
• factors for a successful process and outcome (e.g., timelines, scheduling, requirements for flexible participation opportunities or other ways of enabling effective participation)
• responsibilities for decision making, including identifying the role of each partner in informing or making key decisions
• contact names and protocol

Consider writing some of these points down in an agreement, friendship accord or terms of reference. The approach to formalizing your collaboration should be appropriate to the type of partnership or collaboration. 

Next steps

Collaboration with others is an important part of building the core of your climate adaptation efforts—people, partnerships and governance. For more support to get started on strengthening people, partnerships and governance, explore the following tip sheets:

• Tip sheet: Start resourcing your municipality for climate adaptation
• Tip sheet: Start building council momentum for climate adaptation
• Tip sheet: Start involving diverse voices in municipal climate adaptation 

Explore the Climate-Ready Communities Assessment Tool for additional insight and support. You can use the tool to evaluate your existing climate adaptation efforts, pinpoint areas for improvement and chart a clear plan for strengthening your community’s adaptation efforts.

Having the right people, partnerships and governance enables effective climate adaptation efforts. Municipalities early in their climate adaptation journey often face unique challenges. These tip sheets are designed to help you get started on strengthening the foundations of your climate adaptation initiatives—people, partnerships and governance.    

Maybe you have faced a recent climate event that highlighted the need to prepare for future challenges. Maybe your council and/or staff see the benefits of adaptation and are pushing for action. Maybe you have secured a grant for climate adaptation. Or maybe you are already doing climate adaptation but are looking to do more. Whether you are just starting out or looking to strengthen your climate adaptation efforts, these tip sheets offer guidance on moving forward.  

Use these tip sheets to help you allocate limited internal resources, collaborate with others and generate the necessary support from your council and community members.  
 

Explore tips for assembling the right people, strengthening partnerships and governing the process.

Discover how to get started in the tip sheets below.

Tip sheet: Start resourcing your municipality for climate adaptation

Time investment: 8 minutes

Get tips on prioritizing climate resilience while balancing overall community priorities and organizational resources.  

Tip sheet: Start collaborating on municipal climate adaptation  

Time investment: 8 minutes

Explore tips for working with others in meaningful and effective ways.

Tip sheet: Start building council momentum for climate adaptation  

Time investment: 6 minutes

Get tips for strengthening council commitment and climate adaptation policies.

Tip sheet: Start involving diverse voices in municipal climate adaptation  

Time investment: 6 minutes

Explore tips for using inclusive and equitable engagement in climate adaptation work.  

This tip sheet will help you answer:  

• How do we prioritize climate adaptation when our staff is juggling multiple roles?
• How do we balance competing priorities and make the most of limited staff and financial resources?
• How can we find efficiencies as we undertake climate adaptation work?
• How do we collaborate across departments? 

Getting started

Build an understanding of why climate adaptation matters.

To gain support and funding for climate adaptation in your municipality, you first need to help people understand why climate change matters, how it connects to their responsibilities and what can be done to tackle it. Supporting this understanding is not a one-time effort, as different groups within your organization and community may require specific messaging or approaches to engagement depending on their experiences, concerns and priorities.  

Building understanding involves identifying who your audience is and what they care about, and then communicating with them about the connection between climate change and the things they care about. Your primary audience should be decision makers so you can get the people and financial resources needed for the work. Depending on your municipality, this may include managers, directors or potentially council.  

For support with building your and your team’s understanding of why climate adaptation matters in your community, use GMF’s Talking it through: Guide for local government staff on climate adaptation and check out the customizable PowerPoint tool.  

Involve others.

Many hands lighten the load and can lead to great results. Involve others by finding people who can contribute their skills, knowledge and resources to your municipality’s climate adaptation efforts.  

How can your organization prioritize climate adaptation efforts when staff are already juggling many responsibilities?  

Here are some tips to help you get started.

1. Identify and develop climate adaptation champions.

The most effective climate work is often led by people with a strong interest and desire to learn rather than those in specific roles. Individuals who are passionate about climate adaptation can help find information and funding, drive initiatives, motivate others and ensure that adaptation remains a priority. When empowered to do so, these climate adaptation champions can help your municipality build a coalition of actors and make a lot of progress.  

Finding champions within your organization involves reaching out across departments to identify people who have worked on climate or climate-adjacent projects. Look for individuals who have shown interest in sustainability or environmental issues.

Empowering a climate adaptation champion(s):

• Provide encouragement. Let your climate adaptation champion(s) know that, even if they have other core responsibilities, this is important to the community and that their work to contribute to climate adaptation is encouraged.
• Endorse the role. Giving formal recognition to the role of the climate adaptation champion(s) can help give them needed authority when engaging other staff on climate adaptation work.
• Connect with decision makers. Bring together the climate adaptation champion(s) and decision makers within your organization. This can help ensure that their ideas and initiatives receive the necessary support.
• Provide training and resources. Support the climate adaptation champion(s) in accessing training programs and resources such as workshops, online courses or conferences related to climate adaptation as this will enhance their knowledge and skills. For example, some resources currently available are:
  • The Green Municipal Fund’s Communities of Practice
  • The Green Municipal Fund’s Climate resilience training from GMF Partners  
  • The Government of Canada’s Climate Services Support Desk
  • The Government of Canada’s Applying Climate Literacy Foundations course  
• Offer incentives and acknowledge contributions. Consider offering incentives such as recognition awards, professional development opportunities or additional resources to motivate and reward your climate adaptation champion(s). Additionally, publicly recognizing the contributions they make can help them maintain their enthusiasm for the work.  

2. Develop and work in partnerships.

Many organizations, institutions and other stakeholders are now involved in climate adaptation, directly or otherwise. Collaborating with these groups can help fill gaps in your internal capacity and provide additional support for identifying and implementing adaptation initiatives.  

For example,

• Academic institutions can support with expertise and resources for research, data analysis or adding additional personnel, such as interns, to your adaptation efforts. Your information needs can often make an interesting project for students.
• Community organizations such as NGOs or local groups can connect with different people in your community, build local awareness and support, and help implement climate adaptation actions.
• Conservation authorities may offer expertise in critical areas such as risk evaluation, watershed management, flood prevention and ecosystem health.
• Regional and provincial governments offer funding, policy direction, technical guidance, tools, and regional coordination.
• Local and regional First Nations, Métis, Inuit and urban Indigenous Peoples communities and organizations have important Indigenous Knowledge systems, stewardship practices and other expertise that can guide adaptation efforts and strengthen their outcomes.

Additional details and guidance are outlined in the following resources:

• Tip sheet: Start collaborating on municipal climate adaptation includes tips on developing and working in partnerships.
• Tip sheet: Start preparing for climate risk assessment and adaptation plan and Tip sheet: Start assessing your local climate risks provide support for involving others in your climate adaptation efforts. 

Balance various community needs. 

Balancing community needs involves making decisions on how to allocate the resources you have to accomplish your community’s objectives and needs—both immediate and long-term.

How can you prioritize climate adaptation alongside other immediate community needs?  

Here are some tips to help you get started.

1. Identify the initiatives (plans, processes or projects) that your municipality will be undertaking over the next few years.

What activities or projects have already been identified as an immediate need in your municipality? Examples might include:

• infrastructure repairs or upgrades
• updating your municipality’s official plan
• implementing asset management practices
• training a new council after a local election
• adapting services to meet the needs of changing demographics and vulnerable populations (e.g., seniors, youth)

2. Identify connections to climate adaptation.

Review initiatives to identify connections to climate adaptation. For example:

• Infrastructure improvements, such as upgrading stormwater systems to account for changes in precipitation patterns, can reduce flooding risks now and help the community adapt to climate change.
• Your community plan and zoning can identify natural areas for protection, such as wetlands that help your community be more resilient to flooding or extreme heat.
• Data collected for asset management, such as an asset inventory and condition assessment, can support improved climate risk assessments.
• Operations and maintenance activities, such as regularly clearing culverts, can help your drainage and transportation services remain reliable when facing storms and flooding.  

In assessing these initiatives, you may find that meaningful actions supporting your community’s climate resilience may not always be explicitly climate-related.

Tip sheet: Start climate adaptation planning includes examples of climate adaptation initiatives that align with municipal work.

3. Identify and communicate co-benefits. 

Where there is a connection between existing activities or initiatives and climate adaptation, there is the potential for co-benefits—activities that both achieve immediate needs and contribute to longer-term benefits, or that have climate adaptation benefits and contribute positively to other areas of work. Often, activities or initiatives can be changed in small ways to achieve even greater co-benefits. For example:

• Regularly maintaining ditches and culverts as part of normal operations builds climate resilience by helping to reduce flooding during extreme rain events.
• Increasing urban tree cover can reduce extreme heat risk and support biodiversity.
• Implementing programs to retrofit homes and enhance the environment in vulnerable neighbourhoods (e.g., with improved insulation, permeable pavements and urban green spaces) can make these areas more climate-resilient while also addressing public health and safety concerns in marginalized communities.

It will be important to identify the co-benefits and then clearly communicate them to the decision makers who must balance both immediate and long-term community needs.

Tips for communicating co-benefits include:

• Highlight immediate benefits.
• Link to long-term goals.
• Identify opportunities to modify the activity or initiative for additional co-benefits.
• Use clear and accessible language.
• Share success stories.
• Engage the community to discuss what the co-benefits might look like for them.

Additional resources on communicating about climate adaptation topics can be found in:

• ICLEI’s Climate Communications Toolkit
• Re.Climate’s Climate Communications Playbook 

Next steps

Resourcing your organization internally is an important part of building the core of your climate adaptation efforts—people, partnerships and governance. For more information on ways to strengthen people, partnerships and governance, explore the following:

• Tip sheet: Start collaborating on municipal climate adaptation
• Tip sheet: Start building council momentum for climate adaptation
• Tip sheet: Start involving diverse voices in municipal climate adaptation 

Explore the Climate-Ready Communities Assessment Tool for additional insight and support. You can use the tool to evaluate your existing climate adaptation efforts, pinpoint areas for improvement and chart a clear plan for strengthening your community’s adaptation efforts.