Looking back now, the 19 trailblazing communities that joined Community Climate Transitions in 2022 sparked a movement, demonstrating what is possible when local climate partnerships build trust across diverse actors and work towards shared goals.
Two years later, we're much closer to seeing community-led, cross-sector climate action become the norm, with a network of 70+ current and alumni communities committed to collaborative approaches. This year, we're eager to deepen our work with members in and learn alongside them as they advance equitable climate transitions and make progress towards the SDGs.
– Laura Schnurr, Director of Climate Transitions at the Tamarack Institute
Building on a Strong Foundation
In 2022 and 2023, nearly 50 communities from across eight provinces took part in Tamarack’s Climate Transitions Cohorts.
In their first year of engagement with the Community Climate Transitions (CCT) network, communities have developed shared visions in partnership with local rightsholders and stakeholders, applied multisolving and collective impact approaches to climate action to address local challenges holistically and collaboratively, and prototyped and scaled promising climate solutions.
The community-led climate transitions movement is expansive, and its impacts are considerable. This year’s cohort will be no different and is in great company. The Tamarack team is thrilled to continue to work alongside many cohort alumni who have returned as network members while also expanding the network once more this year.
Get to know this year’s cohort!
In 2024, we are welcoming 24 new communities through our third English-speaking Cohort and our second French-speaking one.
Twenty members of the new English-speaking Climate Transitions Cohort:
Newfoundland and Labrador: Municipalities of Newfoundland and Labrador
New Glasgow, NS: Town of New Glasgow
Nova Scotia: Nova Scotia Public Health
Fredericton, NB: Fredericton Community Climate Hub, Climate Reality Project Canada
London, ON: London Health Sciences Centre, London/Middlesex Public Health Unit, Western University, London Cycle Network, Creating Me, Run Like Clockwork
Hamilton, ON: Vital Futures, Action13
Durham Region, ON: Brilliant Energy Institute, City of Pickering, Climate Justice Durham, Municipality of Clarington, Ontario Tech University, Region of Durham, Town of Ajax, Township of Brock, Town of Whitby
Toronto, ON: Community Resilience to Extreme Weather (CREW)
Thunder Bay, ON: City of Thunder Bay, Climate Change (EarthCare) Advisory Committee of Council, Rotary Club of Thunder Bay – Port Arthur, Environment North, Northwest Climate Collaborative
Oakville, ON: Oakville Community Foundation
ON-wide: Environmental Defence
Winnipeg, MB: Manitoba Eco-Network, West Broadway Community Organization, West End Resource Centre, Spence Neighbourhood Association, Green Action Centre
The Pas / Northern Manitoba: University College of the North, Opaskwayak Cree Nation, The Pas Community Development Corporation, Town of The Pas
Lethbridge, AB: Environment Lethbridge, City of Lethbridge, Helen Schuler Nature Centre
Edmonton, AB: Africa Centre
Alexander First Nation, Alexis Nakota Sioux Nation, O'Chiese First Nation, & Sunchild First Nation, AB: Yellowhead Tribal Council
Clayoquot Sound Biosphere Region, BC: Clayoquot Biosphere Trust
Vancouver, BC: Women Transforming Cities
BC-Wide: Aboriginal Housing Management Association
National: Shake Up the Establishment
Four members of the new French-speaking Cohorte ClimatIC:
Lachine, QC: GRAMELaval, QC: Ville de Laval
Montréal, QC: ENvironnement JEUnesse
Montréal, QC: Sustainable and Resilient Cities Collective
This year’s audacious goals
When asked about what local goals they are looking to advance over the year, communities shared significant hopes and milestones, such as:
- Supporting the environmental literacy of the community, with particular focus on diversifying climate narratives and speaking to climate action in ways that resonate with residents with lived and living experience.
- Build tools to support community resilience and adaptation to climate impacts through nature-based solutions, disaster response coordination, and other resident-led efforts.
- Connecting siloed climate plans and activities under shared agendas to minimize duplication, pool resources, and achieve measurable community-level progress on targets.
- Implementing engagement approaches that meet folks where they are at and encourage leaders from equity-deserving communities to participate in and lead climate action work (with focuses on youth, African and Caribbean communities, rural areas, and gender-diverse people).
- Identifying and moving forward promising policy levers for climate action (e.g., youth-led advocacy and public health) and developing knowledge tools to build capacity for and deepen the impact of this work.
- Build tools to support community resilience and adaptation to climate impacts through nature-based solutions, disaster response coordination, and other efforts.
- Developing a shared sense of ownership of existing climate plans by creating frameworks for resident engagement that enable neighborhood leadership and action.
- Adopting inclusive and collaborative governance models that bring more voices into local climate work and create shared accountabilities toward plan implementation.
What’s in store for the year
The 24 new members of the Climate Transitions cohort will go through a 10-month program focused on capacity building and knowledge sharing that will build a strong foundation for collaboration and local action. Each member will have access to experts, coaches, private communities of practice, and more, around the themes of collective impact and climate justice to support local objectives.
We are also excited to offer members access to two unique funds that drive deeper and more equitable impact. The Community Innovation Fund supports members to seed and scale ambitious community-led projects focused on mitigating and/or adapting to climate change. The Community Contributions Fund nurtures the ingenuity of equity-deserving community members by resourcing and supporting their leadership in local collaboratives and projects.
Here is an overview of the 2024 program curriculum:
Committing to a just and equitable climate transition
Every member starting this journey is committed to serving their communities and ensuring a healthier, brighter, and more just future through collaborative work that yields long-lasting transformational change.
Would you like to join the network or nominate a community? Contact our Director of Climate Transitions, Laura at laura@tamarackcommunity.ca.
Tamarack’s Community Climate Transitions Cohorts are made possible thanks to generous support from the Government of Canada’s Sustainable Development Goals Funding Program and the Definity Insurance Foundation.
