Tip sheet: Start putting your climate adaptation plan into action

• 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.