Climate Hubs are citizen-led initiatives with the shared goal of addressing climate change at the municipal level. Introduced by the Climate Reality Project Canada, the program recognizes that successful climate action can only be successful when accounting for each individual region's own characteristics (e.g. geography, demography), threats, and opportunities. As part of a nationwide network, each hub aims to facilitate and encourage mobilization of residents and other stakeholders to advance climate action and accelerate implementation and adoption of municipal climate focused policies.
Why Local Climate Action
Nationally and internationally, climate policies have become the target of politicized debates, making the commitment to (more) ambitious targets difficult to achieve. Politicians are said to belong to an insulated societal elite that is removed from most people's day-to-day challenges.
In contrast, Canadian elected municipal leaders do not belong to political parties and, as opposed to their provincial and federal counterparts, live full-time in the same communities as their constituents: they shop at the same stores, eat at the same restaurants, walk and jog along the same trails, and send their kids to the same schools and sports programs.
That, combined with the fact that half of our country's Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions are tied up in areas which municipalities control, is what makes municipal climate action a powerful tool to reduce emissions and achieve climate targets.
Governance
The Community Climate Hubs program delivers the support and structure to grassroots groups that may not be as easily available to them, notably due to capacity reasons. The Climate Reality Project Canada provides invaluable administrative support and the creation of quality resources so that people with boots on the ground can focus on what’s important: pushing the climate movement forward with their campaigns.
Each Climate Hub governs itself and remains an independent entity.