Climate Action & Innovation in Canadian Municipalities

From 2021-2022, FlipSide Sustainability developed four briefing notes showcasing the policy relevant highlights from the Municipalities for Climate Innovation Program (MCIP). MCIP distributed $55 million over a five-year period (2016-2021) to municipalities across Canada to work on climate action through eight MCIP program areas. The goal of the following four briefing notes is to identify both common and innovative forms of adaptation and mitigation planning and action that can support the acceleration of effective climate action in municipalities across Canada.

The foundational evidence for these briefing notes is based on detailed evaluation work done by ACT – Action on Climate Team at Simon Fraser University between 2020-2022. The ACT team developed an evaluation methodology, including a coding architecture and analysis protocols, to identify key municipal climate action, success factors and best practice, and climate innovation in 322 funded projects, that included 395 municipalities, across all eight MCIP programs. The resulting Technical Report titled, MCIP’s Role in Mobilizing Municipal Climate Action, was used as the technical basis for the data in these briefing notes. The three briefing note authors contributed to the development of this technical report. We’d also like to thank two other contributors, Jordan Brears and Julianne Barr, for their underlying data contributions, which have provided the basis for this briefing note series.