How to communicate climate with your audience
Learn research-based best practices for reaching different audiences, how to structure clear key messages and how to use this toolkit's regional maps and templates with confidence.
Toolkit
Communicating climate action with clarity, trust and confidence
Research-based tools for municipal staff and elected officials communicating about climate in communities across Canada.
Climate change is one of the most important conversations happening in Canadian communities right now. Municipal staff and elected officials are often having that conversation directly—at council meetings, in local media, at community events and online.
This toolkit gives you the tools to navigate those conversations effectively.
About this toolkit
The Municipal Climate Communication Toolkit is a practical resource for municipal staff and elected officials—with a particular focus on rural, remote, small and medium communities across Canada. It was built to help you communicate local climate action clearly, honestly and in a way that builds public trust.
This toolkit includes:
How to use it
Each tool in this toolkit can be used on its own—or combined based on your local needs.
Build skills for effective communications: e-courses
Two self-paced courses for municipal staff and elected officials who communicate with the public as part of their role—but don't have a formal communications background.
You don't need any prior knowledge to take either course.
Misinformation and disinformation in climate communications
Learn to recognize false claims about local climate work, decide whether and how to respond and use clear communication as a first line of defence.
Regional messaging and research
Select your region below for tailored messaging and insights.
- British Columbia
BC communities face a wide range of climate impacts—wildfire, flooding, extreme heat and drought—and a communication environment shaped by strong climate concern alongside significant affordability pressure.
What the research tells us — British Columbia
Public opinion research: what works, what backfires and why in your region.
Download the research (Google Doc)
Regional key message maps — British Columbia
Ready-made messages structured around affordability, safety and community protection.
Make it local — British Columbia
Where to find local data and proof points that make your messages credible.
- Alberta
Alberta communities are navigating a distinctive communication environment—strong climate concern exists alongside a resource economy that shapes how residents hear climate messages. These tools are built for that reality.
What the research tells us — Alberta
Public opinion research: what works, what backfires and why in your region.
Download the research (Google Doc)
Regional key message maps — Alberta
Ready-made messages structured around affordability, safety and community protection.
Make it local — Alberta
Where to find local data and proof points that make your messages credible.
- Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan communities have a direct connection to agriculture, water and the land. Climate communication works best when it starts with what residents are already living through.
What the research tells us — Saskatchewan
Public opinion research: what works, what backfires and why in your region.
Download the research (Google Doc)
Regional key message maps — Saskatchewan
Ready-made messages structured around affordability, safety and community protection.
Make it local — Saskatchewan
Where to find local data and proof points that make your messages credible.
- Manitoba
Manitoba communities deal with flooding more directly than almost anywhere else in Canada. Climate communication often starts with infrastructure reliability and the real costs of extreme weather.
What the research tells us — Manitoba
Public opinion research: what works, what backfires and why in your region.
Download the research (Google Doc)
Regional key message maps — Manitoba
Ready-made messages structured around affordability, safety and community protection.
Make it local — Manitoba
Where to find local data and proof points that make your messages credible.
- Ontario
Ontario communities face a wide range of climate impacts—flooding, extreme heat, wildfire smoke and aging infrastructure under pressure. Affordability is a dominant concern that shapes how climate messages land.
What the research tells us — Ontario
Public opinion research: what works, what backfires and why in your region.
Download the research (Google Doc)
Regional key message maps — Ontario
Ready-made messages structured around affordability, safety and community protection.
Make it local — Ontario
Where to find local data and proof points that make your messages credible.
- Quebec
Quebec communities benefit from strong public support for climate action, but the gap between concern and action is real. Climate communication works best when it connects to local identity, agriculture and the protection of what residents value most.
What the research tells us — Quebec
Public opinion research: what works, what backfires and why in your region.
Download the research (Google Doc, French)
Regional key message maps — Quebec
Ready-made messages structured around affordability, safety and community protection.
- Rural or remote community (Google Doc, French)
- Small community (Google Doc, French)
- Medium community (Google Doc, French)
Make it local — Quebec
Where to find local data and proof points that make your messages credible.
- New Brunswick
New Brunswick communities span coastal, rural and francophone contexts—each with its own communication needs. These tools reflect that diversity, with particular attention to coastal risk and bilingual communication.
What the research tells us — New Brunswick
Public opinion research: what works, what backfires and why in your region.
Download the research (Google Doc)
Regional key message maps — New Brunswick
Ready-made messages structured around affordability, safety and community protection.
Make it local — New Brunswick
Where to find local data and proof points that make your messages credible.
- Atlantic Canada
These resources are for Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland and Labrador. Atlantic Canadian communities have strong, direct experience with storms, flooding, coastal erosion and sea-level rise.
What the research tells us — Atlantic Canada
Public opinion research: what works, what backfires and why in your region.
Download the research (Google Doc)
Regional key message maps — Atlantic Canada
Ready-made messages structured around affordability, safety and community protection.
Make it local — Atlantic Canada
Where to find local data and proof points that make your messages credible.
- Northern Canada
These resources are for Yukon, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut. Northern communities face climate impacts that are already transforming daily life—permafrost thaw, shorter ice-road seasons, changing wildlife patterns and intensifying wildfire seasons.
What the research tells us — Northern Canada
Public opinion research: what works, what backfires and why in your region.
Download the research (Google Doc)
Regional key message maps — Northern Canada
Ready-made messages structured around affordability, safety and community protection.
Make it local — Northern Canada
Where to find local data and proof points that make your messages credible.
Create the right message for the moment: Key message templates
Six message-building formats for different situations and audiences. Each template is downloadable so you can adapt it to your local context.
Message map
The right tool when multiple people need to say the same thing consistently—across a council meeting, a media interview and a public event. Anchors a complex project to three clear community themes.
- Intended for: Public forums, media interviews and multi-spokesperson situations
Community story
Builds a logical and emotional narrative that residents can follow. Moves from a real local challenge to what your community is doing about it and what that means for people's lives.
- Intended for: Newsletters, op-eds and community meeting presentations
When and who
Organizes your messages by audience concern—affordability, safety and the local economy—so you can speak directly to what's on the mind of the person in front of you.
- Intended for: Town halls, stakeholder meetings and detailed Q&A sessions
Problem to progress
Connects a visible local problem to the practical action your municipality is taking. Useful when you need to show that decisions are grounded in local evidence.
- Intended for: Budget debates, project announcements and spending skepticism
Who / what / why / how / when
A comprehensive information framework that organizes complex project details into five plain-language questions. Works as a standalone fact sheet or as the structure behind an FAQ page.
- Intended for: Open houses, FAQs and detailed project communications
We are / because / so that
Turns a complex initiative into one memorable sentence. Short, clear and built for repetition.
- Intended for: Social media, soundbites and closing statements
Respond to mis- and disinformation
Small municipalities usually meet false claims about their climate work without a communications department. These mis- and disinformation rapid response templates walk you through a calm, factual response in five steps. They put the toolkit's misinformation course into action.
AI guidance and research
Considering using AI to support your climate communications efforts? In GMF's national survey of 196 municipalities, 30 per cent of respondents said they were unsure about using AI, raising concerns about accuracy, privacy and public trust. This guidance responds to that need. It is not an endorsement of AI tools. That decision belongs to each municipality. If yours already has an AI policy, start there.
It’s also important to note that AI tools have real environmental costs. Text-based tasks like drafting and summarizing have a modest footprint. Image and video generation consume significantly more. It’s worth asking before each use: Does this task genuinely benefit from AI, or can I do it just as well without it?
AI guidance
The guidance is offered in two formats.
Concepts and workflow
The foundation for using AI responsibly and effectively in municipal communications work. Covers what AI tools are and how they work, the seven principles for responsible use, how to get better results, and common pitfalls to avoid.
Scenarios
Six situations drawn directly from municipal communications work—a misinformation post gaining traction, an 85-page report nobody will read, a community meeting where pushback is coming, and more. Each scenario walks through how to approach the task using AI responsibly.
AI legislative and governance review
Read the AI legislative and governance review summary
This review examines the Canadian legislative and governance landscape for municipal AI use in communications, including privacy legislation across provinces and territories, federal frameworks, municipal policies, and international best practices. It identifies gaps between existing legislative requirements and responsible AI practices, particularly for smaller municipalities, and provides practical guidance to help staff and elected officials use AI tools effectively and responsibly.