Climate Budgeting Guide
A Resource From the Municipal Net‑zero Action Research PartnershipClimate Budgeting Guide
A resource for Canadian communities from the Municipal Net‑Zero Action Research Partnership (N-ZAP)
So, your municipality has adopted a climate plan. Now comes the hard work of putting it into action. For local governments, it is crucial to understand what actions are needed every year to stay on track with climate targets and know how much that will cost. That’s where climate budgeting comes in.
The Climate Budgeting Guide was created to support Canadian municipalities and local governments in their climate budgeting journey. The guide is designed to help municipal leaders and staff from communities at a range of knowledge levels regarding climate budgeting practices, as well as organizations and advocates in the community. It is divided into four main sections:
- The climate budgeting overview defines climate budgeting in the context of this guide and outlines the business case for local governments.
- The current landscape provides an overview of Canadian and international progress on climate budgeting and summarizes key takeaways from the research, focus groups, interviews, and workshop.
- The climate budgeting process walks through the main steps in establishing a climate budget, with a particular emphasis on governance actions and considerations for phased implementation. Each step includes learnings from leading jurisdictions, examples, tips, considerations, and resources.
- Future directions discuss plans for the next phase of climate budgeting by key organizations, as well as the resources needed to adopt climate budgeting—and integrate adaptation while doing so—in more Canadian jurisdictions.
The guide was created as part of N-ZAP and relates specifically to the work conducted by Technical Working Group 3 to enhance Canadian municipal emissions monitoring and disclosure tools.
About N-ZAP
N-ZAP was established to support Canadian municipalities in monitoring, measuring, and achieving their greenhouse gas mitigation goals. N-ZAP is a partnership between the University of Waterloo, ICLEI Canada, the Federation of Canadian Municipalities’ Green Municipal Fund, as well as 11 other Canadian universities, nine other national organizations, and 15 municipal governments across Canada.
This resource was developed through N-ZAP—a research partnership funded in part by the Government of Canada through the Climate Action and Awareness Fund (CAAF).
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