What governance strategies are available to a municipality pursuing deep decarbonization?

Governance strategies for deep decarbonization include policies, programs and processes to achieve greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction targets. The strategies tend to fall into four broad areas:

• Policy options
• Financial options
• Green economic development options
• Engagement options

The relevance and impact of each varies depending on the local municipal context. Most municipalities adopt combinations of these strategies to achieve their decarbonization outcomes.

Policy options

Almost all Canadian municipalities use policy tools (e.g., bylaws, codes, certification) to implement their strategies for climate action.

When planning and implementing decarbonization policies, it is important to consider existing policies and jurisdictions, as well as enforcement mechanisms. It is also necessary to carefully assess advantages and barriers that may arise for various stakeholders and ensure all equity-seeking groups are considered.

This table shows examples of policy options that support deep emissions reductions in various priority decarbonization pathways.

Policy options	Applicable decarbonization pathway
Policies to promote carbon sequestration by either increasing carbon storage or reducing the loss of stored carbon	Carbon sinks
Policies to promote sustainable and equitable food options	Transportation, waste and sustainable agriculture
Policies to support innovation and pilot experimentation	Buildings, transportation, waste, electricity, sustainable agriculture, land use planning and carbon sinks
Policies to introduce a climate lens in all decision-making and/or to use a carbon budget	Buildings, transportation, waste, electricity, sustainable agriculture, land use planning and carbon sinks
Legislation that supports energy audits and reporting for industrial, commercial and institutional buildings	Buildings
Voluntary energy labelling standards	Buildings
Voluntary building codes	Buildings
Green development standards	Buildings
Policies on biodiversity and green space land-use	Carbon sinks
Policies on renewable and district energy	Electricity
Policies on anti-idling	Transportation
Policies on compact and transit-oriented development	Transportation and land use planning
Policies on waste bans, reduction and diversion	Waste

Examples of policy-oriented governance strategies for deep decarbonization

• Many municipalities have implemented anti-idling bylaws to discourage idling in all vehicles and encourage non-idling options to keep cars warm in winter. The City of Rossland, BC (population 3,729) implemented an anti-idling bylaw and put up signs in the downtown to promote the bylaw.
• The City of Vancouver, BC (population 631,486) implemented an energy bylaw for existing buildings and a stretch code for new buildings, to reduce new builds to zero-emission and embodied emissions by 40%.
• The City of Saint John, NB (population 71,364) amended zoning bylaws to include a new green energy land-use zone for large-scale renewable energy projects. The city also revised its asset management policy to ensure climate mitigation and adaptation are considered for both new infrastructure and infrastructure renewal.

Financial options

Financial tools stimulate behavioural change through a combination of pricing, taxes, low-interest loans, charges, fees, subsidies and community grants.

This table shows examples of financial options that support deep emissions reductions in various priority decarbonization pathways.

Financial options	Applicable decarbonization pathway
Local carbon credits	Buildings, transportation, waste, electricity, sustainable agriculture, land use planning and carbon sinks
Local improvement charges	Buildings, transportation, waste, electricity, sustainable agriculture, land use planning and carbon sinks
Divestment of pension funds	Buildings, transportation, waste, electricity, sustainable agriculture, land use planning and carbon sinks
Green bonds	Buildings, transportation, waste, electricity, sustainable agriculture, land use planning and carbon sinks
Property assessed clean energy (PACE) programs	Buildings
Financing options for residential retrofits	Buildings
Financial incentives (e.g., rebates) for net-zero property development	Buildings
Free or low-cost public transit pricing, electric vehicle parking pricing, incentives for biking to work (so no need for parking)	Transportation
Congestion pricing	Transportation
Stormwater charges and grants	Waste

Examples of finance-oriented governance strategies for deep decarbonization

• The Town of Halton Hills, ON (population 61,161) is exploring the option of a third-party partner (e.g., an NGO, non-profit, or cooperative) to administer investments and loans related to climate change.
• The City of Saskatoon, SK (population 245,181) launched a Home Energy Loan Program (HELP) in 2021. Similar to property assessed clean energy (PACE), the program will provide loans for energy efficiency retrofits and energy generation on residential properties.

Green economic development options

Efforts to reduce GHG emissions usually create significant economic development opportunities and savings. Many Canadian municipalities are experiencing economic benefits from climate action, green procurement policies and aligning their decarbonization plans with economic development strategies. Integrating decarbonization efforts with economic development can often accelerate local action, especially in municipalities that are hesitant about pursuing or funding climate action.

This table shows examples of policies, programs and processes that integrate climate action with economic development to support deep emissions reductions in various priority decarbonization pathways.

Green economic development options	Applicable decarbonization pathway
Green jobs	Buildings, transportation, waste, electricity, sustainable agriculture, land use planning and carbon sinks
Workforce training on climate-related information	Buildings, transportation, waste, electricity, sustainable agriculture, land use planning and carbon sinks
Investment in renewable energy	Electricity
Public/active transportation infrastructure, electric vehicle charging infrastructure	Transportation
Green procurement policies (e.g., green fleet)	Transportation
Energy recovery from waste	Waste

Examples of green economic development strategies for deep decarbonization

• The Town of Bridgewater, NS (population 8,532) developed its Community Energy Investment Plan as a green economic development strategy and plans to create green jobs in the building, transportation and energy sectors.
• The City of Victoriaville, QC (population 47,796) is collaborating with Economic Development Corporation to develop an industrial eco-park and a greener industry

Engagement options

Engaging the public and community organizations requires focused effort and communication throughout the decarbonization planning and implementation cycle. Engagement activities range from seeking public feedback on a proposed decarbonization plan to establishing a collaborative decision-making model. Successful engagement activities create transparency, improve climate literacy and awareness, and promote support for climate action.

Corporate and community-wide climate action plans need different types of engagement. Corporate plans involve consultation and perhaps partnerships for implementation, while community-wide plans require a collaborative approach that uses shared decision-making and collective action. The next section provides more information on collaborative and consultative approaches.

Examples of engagement options that support deep emissions reductions in all priority pathways for decarbonization (buildings, transportation, waste, electricity, and nature-based solutions).

• Advocating to other orders of government
• Undertaking community-based social marketing
• Identifying and prioritizing collaboration to implement community or sector decarbonization projects, programs or actions
• Participating in transnational or regional networks
• Implementing local partner membership programs
• Partnering with educational institutions
• Providing public education on energy and electrification, transportation, waste and building retrofits
• Consulting with stakeholders, community members and technical experts

What are the different types of municipal engagement for deep decarbonization?

During the decarbonization planning process, municipalities often find themselves taking part in different types of engagement. These may be categorized as stakeholder engagement, rightsholder engagement, advocacy and lobbying, and partner engagement.

1) Stakeholder engagement

Stakeholders are both people (the public) and groups and organizations. Stakeholder engagement is vital to inclusion and integrated decision-making throughout the decarbonization planning process.

When planning for community-wide decarbonization, municipalities must continuously build trust among stakeholders, to align the decarbonization plan with stakeholder values and needs while achieving deep decarbonization targets. Additionally, meaningful participation may be encouraged by ensuring diverse stakeholder representation and equipping stakeholders with the appropriate tools and capacities for action.

Example of stakeholder engagement for deep decarbonization

• The Town of Drayton Valley, AB (population 7,235) hosted a series of energy literacy workshops that encouraged participants to envision an energy future that fits the community, and to talk about how that vision could be realized. Participants included local residents, businesses, academia and elected officials from neighbouring communities.

2) Rightsholder engagement

Many municipalities in Canada are on the traditional unceded or treaty territories of Indigenous peoples. It is important to identify Indigenous rightsholders that might have their treaty and Indigenous sovereignty rights impacted by an implementation action or decarbonization strategy. Indigenous involvement in the engagement process is necessary to ensure meaningful representation and participation of the Indigenous rightsholders within or in proximity to the municipality. Rightsholder engagement must be conducted in a timely, transparent and respectful manner.

Soliciting engagement from Indigenous government representatives, urban Indigenous organizations and/or sovereignty-seeking groups in decarbonization planning and implementation is an important part of the overall engagement process. It helps ensure that deep decarbonization efforts are done in collaboration with Indigenous organizations and that the plans incorporate Indigenous knowledge and wisdom and consider the implications on traditional territories and land claims.

3) Advocacy and lobbying

Advocacy and lobbying can encourage more action on and attention to decarbonization from other orders of government. This can include regulatory and financial support.

Example of advocacy and lobbying for deep decarbonization

• An intergovernmental department in the City of Guelph, ON (population 131,794) and local community groups are advocating to other orders of government for support for climate action. An example is the community group named Advocacy is our Story.

4) Partner engagement

GHG emissions reductions require collective effort from multiple stakeholders, and partner engagement is critical to ensuring everyone is working toward the same vision. Through active partner engagement, stakeholders can be part of community-wide transformation and connect with the local government on decarbonization efforts. Partner engagement often requires negotiating roles and organizational contributions.

Examples of partner engagement for deep decarbonization

• The City of Grande Prairie, AB (population 69,088) engaged the downtown association in the decision to install electric vehicle charging stations. It also connected with the Chamber of Commerce to involve builders and developers.
• In BC, City Green Solutions has collaborated with nine municipalities (Capital Regional District, City of Victoria, District of Saanich, District of Central Saanich, City of Campbell River, Regional District of Nanaimo, Comox Valley Regional District, Township of Esquimalt, and Cowichan Valley Regional District) on a residential retrofit acceleration project to help reduce emissions from the building sector.
• The City of Rossland, BC (population 3,729) partnered with the local utility Fortis BC, the Columbia Basin Trust, and the Nelson and District Credit Union to develop the Rossland Energy Diet and retrofit more than 150 homes.

What is the difference between a consultative and a collaborative governance approach?

Climate mitigation requires both broad and deep participation. To that end, municipalities use different approaches to engage internal and external stakeholders to address climate change.

• The consultative approach is a municipal-led approach where stakeholders operate in an advisory capacity to the local government. Decision-making rests with the municipality. This approach is ideal when targeting GHG emissions reductions from municipal operations, services, buildings and fleets.
• The collaborative approach involves shared decision-making and participation among stakeholders in the implementation process. This may include public/private partnerships (contract), joint ventures and projects (agreement), sector-specific multi-stakeholder working groups (voluntary), large cross-sector partnerships (voluntary), and community NGOs with a multi-stakeholder board (incorporation). This approach is ideal for topics and issues that are not under the direct control of the municipality.

The consultative approach is often sufficient for corporate-level governance. However, the collaborative approach is essential to successful community-wide decarbonization efforts.

What is the best set-up for a collaborative approach?

Designing a collaborative approach depends on the municipality and its needs. For example:

• A cross-sector partnership might be best for organizing major employers and having them commit to a range of actions, such as transitioning their fleet, offering incentives to encourage active/public transit for employees, retrofitting their heating/cooling systems, adding renewable energy generation to their operations, or improving their organic waste diversion.
• A sector-specific approach might make more sense when the focus is narrower, such as coordinating with key partners to design, develop and retrofit residential buildings.

This table shows examples of the leading stakeholders and the suggested governance approach for various priority pathways for emissions reductions.

Priority pathway for decarbonization	Leading stakeholders (Can be adapted as required)	Suggested governance approach
Electricity
Electricity production	Provincial Crown utilities and regulatory agencies Municipalities Businesses Indigenous organizations	Collaborative
Electricity transmission and distribution	Provincial Crown utilities and regulatory agencies Municipalities	Collaborative
Buildings
Municipal-owned buildings	Municipalities	Consultative
Residential housing	Real estate developers Trades Homeowners Indigenous organizations Municipalities Material suppliers Energy auditors NGOs (e.g., environmental groups, equity-seeking groups, newcomer groups, seniors’ groups)	Collaborative
Commercial buildings	Businesses Developers Trades Municipalities Chambers of Commerce NGOs (e.g., environmental groups, equity-seeking groups, seniors’ groups) Indigenous organizations	Private sector–led with municipal, Indigenous and NGO influence and support
Industrial and institutional buildings	Industrial and institutional organizations and companies	Industry-led with municipal, Indigenous and NGO influence and support
Transportation
Municipal fleets, including public transit	Municipalities	Consultative
Personal vehicles	Citizens Vehicle sales locations Zero-emission vehicle groups	Collaborative
Business and organization owned vehicles	Businesses Institutions	Collaborative
Mode shift	Municipalities Bicycle groups Ride-share, rental and taxi companies NGOs (e.g., environmental groups, equity-seeking groups, seniors’ groups) Businesses	Collaborative
Waste
Wastewater operations	Municipalities	Consultative
Landfills	Municipalities Citizens Waste businesses Industry, commerce and institutional entities related to food or agricultural waste	Consultative
Carbon sinks (nature-based solutions)
Municipal parks and green spaces	Municipalities Indigenous organizations	Consultative
Protected areas and historic sites	Municipalities Other orders of government Indigenous organizations	Multi-order governance and municipal advocacy

Assess the effectiveness of your governance strategies and approaches

The questions below can help you and other members of your municipal climate action team assess the effectiveness of your governance strategies and approaches for deep decarbonization.

• What are some of your current strategies for implementing climate action? How effective have they been in reducing GHG emissions? Will they enable you to reach your interim and long-term deep decarbonization targets?
• Do your existing policies accelerate or inhibit implementation of your decarbonization plan? Should they be revised to make them more effective, or are new policies needed?
• Are the scale of action and speed of strategy implementation appropriate to achieve the targets? Are you on track to reach your interim corporate and community-wide targets?
• What resources and information do you need to gain support from the public and other senior leaders for taking action on deep decarbonization?
• Are your climate action plans benefiting community groups differently? Are they causing unintended negative consequences for equity-seeking groups, or are they helping to simultaneously address social goals?
• How can other senior leaders and members of your municipal climate action team assist you in advocating to other orders of government for more supportive decarbonization strategy options?

Key terms

Carbon sink: A system that absorbs more carbon than it emits (e.g., forests, wetlands, oceans, soil).

Deep decarbonization: is the process of reducing carbon dioxide emissions (and others GHGs) at a rate that ensures net-zero emissions at the community-wide level by the year 2050 and significant reductions by 2030.

Deep decarbonization pathways: The electricity, building, transportation, waste, land use and agricultural sectors are priority pathways for establishing policies and other solutions to advance climate action. The relative contribution of each sector toward community-wide emissions can vary significantly depending on the municipality’s economic base, urban form, density, wealth and sources of electricity in the grid.

Deep decarbonization plan: A corporate or community-wide climate action plan that aims for at least 80 percent reduction of GHG emissions by 2050. (Note: Although the word carbon (in the sense of carbon dioxide equivalent) is often used, all GHGs are considered as part of deep decarbonization plans and carbon neutrality goals.)

Equity-seeking groups: Communities that experience significant systemic barriers to participating in society; these are often barriers to equal access to opportunities and resources due to systemic discrimination. The barrier may be due to factors such as age, ethnicity, race, nationality, disability, gender, sexual orientation, nationality, or economic status. It is important that communities include diverse groups in their decision-making to make meaningful and just decisions about their governance approach.

Stakeholders: Persons or groups who are directly or indirectly affected by a project. They may also have interests in the project or influence (positive or negative) on the project outcome.

Key terms to understand the deep decarbonization process

What are the priority pathways to achieve deep decarbonization?

Electricity

Consuming renewable energy produced by the electricity sector is an essential alternative to fossil fuels. More electrification and fuel shifts for heating buildings and in transportation can stimulate investment in renewable energy.

Buildings

Decarbonization solutions for the building sector include reducing carbon emissions over the life cycle of the asset. This can be done by, for example, increasing building efficiency through good design, decarbonizing heating systems through retrofits of old buildings and ensuring new buildings have low or zero carbon emissions.

Transportation

Shifting toward active (e.g., walking, cycling) and public transportation, and moving to electric vehicles or other zero-emission vehicles can significantly reduce transportation-related GHG emissions.

Waste

Transformations in the waste sector include reducing waste to landfills and investing in technologies to capture emissions from waste treatment processes.

Nature-based solutions

Nature-based solutions include increasing carbon sinks through urban forests and wetlands, and adopting sustainable agriculture. As municipalities continue to adopt ambitious emissions reduction targets, many are using local carbon sinks and carbon offsets to achieve decarbonization goals. Effective land use planning for green space and protection of ecological services is a consideration for urban carbon sinks.

• Sustainable agriculture
  
  Sustainable land use in agriculture can increase the carbon sink capacity of agricultural land. This includes improving soil management through soil conservation and carbon sequestration practices, implementing crop rotations, decreasing bare fallow and establishing agroforestry systems.
  
  In addition, using ecological farming practices such as reducing fertilizer inputs, adjusting livestock feed to reduce emissions from digestive systems and capturing methane emissions from manure can significantly reduce GHG emissions.
  
  Food choices also play a role. Policies and strategies to promote sustainable and local food choices can decrease emissions from waste and transportation sectors and help create equitable access to sustainable food options for low-income citizens.

How can municipalities influence deep decarbonization?

Many municipalities in Canada have developed both corporate and community-wide climate action plans in response to climate change.

• Corporate climate action plans focus on reducing emissions from activities that are within the control and direct influence of the local government (i.e., the "corporation").
• Community-wide climate action plans focus on reducing GHG emissions, including industrial and residential emissions, within the municipal boundaries.

The primary focus for most municipalities is on reducing corporate emissions and furthering community-wide deep decarbonization efforts, especially when federal and provincial initiatives are not achieving sufficient reductions on their own. Knowing what they control directly helps municipalities determine how to structure their corporate climate action plan and their community plan. Federal/provincial policies and initiatives as well as business products and services have a direct impact on helping municipalities and local stakeholders achieve corporate and community-wide emissions targets.

This graphic shows municipal spheres of influence over different sources of GHG emissions. It can be adapted to each local context.

Municipal spheres of influence over different sources of GHG emissions

Which sources of GHG emissions are included in deep decarbonization plans?

When it comes to measuring and reporting GHG emissions, most deep decarbonization plans in Canada focus on two categories of GHG emissions:

1. Direct GHG emissions generated from within the municipality
2. Indirect emissions associated with the purchase of grid-supplied energy

The Greenhouse Gas Protocol (GHG Protocol) identifies these as Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions respectively. Increasingly, Scope 3 emissions are also being considered. This third category includes all other indirect GHG emissions that occur outside the municipal boundary due to consumption or investment by people within the municipality. The three scopes can be used in corporate and community-wide climate action plans to categorize sources of GHG emissions.

Sources and boundaries of municipal GHG emissions

Leading edge deep decarbonization plans are also starting to consider embodied carbon, which is the total GHG emissions associated with a material over the product’s lifecycle. For example, embodied carbon in an infrastructure project includes emissions from the extraction, manufacturing and transportation of building materials, as well as emissions associated with construction and demolition. Embodied carbon is separate from operational carbon, which is GHG emissions resulting from the use and operation of built infrastructure.

What commitments are Canadian municipalities making to decarbonize?

What steps can Canadian municipalities take to decarbonize?

What are key success factors for deep decarbonization?

Next steps for municipal climate leaders

Resources for decarbonization planning

About this factsheet

This factsheet was created through a partnership between FCM’s Municipalities for Climate Innovation Program (MCIP) and the University of Waterloo’s Dr. Amelia Clarke and Ying Zhou. The information is based on literature reviews and interviews with 11 partner organizations and 51 local governments that were part of MCIP’s Transition 2050 (T2050) initiative. T2050 provided grants to regions of all sizes in Canada to help them reach significant carbon emissions reduction targets.

The factsheet also draws on Deep Decarbonization in Cities: Pathways, Strategies, Governance Mechanisms and Actors for Transformative Climate Action, by Samantha Hall Linton.