Climate Change Action Plan

The City of Mississauga will be working towards its strategic goal of becoming a “net-zero” carbon city and a leader in green initiatives through the development of a Climate Change Action Plan. Over recent years there has been a collective awakening to the forces of climate change that are impacting global systems. At the outset of this challenge, certain communities (e.g., coastal nations affected by sea level rise) could foresee the potential issues. Nowadays, the impacts are widespread across natural, economic, and social systems affecting everyone and effects are being evidenced in Mississauga. Over the past ten years, there have been four major climate events in the City which have caused significant loss and damage. Due to these intense events, there is a growing sense of responsibility to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to lessen the negative impacts and improve local adaptive capacity. The project will develop a set of priorities for the City such as:• Raising public interest, awareness and understanding of climate change action in the City; • Engage stakeholders and the local community; • Set GHG reduction targets in line with international, federal, and provincial objectives; • Identify actions to reduce vulnerability, emissions and to build low carbon resilience;• Determine timelines and budget requirements; • Define potential partnerships between stakeholders (including the City). Actions within the Plan are expected to have the potential to influence decision-making and planning processes given the interdisciplinary and multi-faceted nature of climate change and the broad engagement of municipal stakeholders. In addition, the Plan may help to streamline climate change considerations into business planning, development review processes, procurement and other future planning work. Harmonizing technical content and engagement will provide concrete actions for implementation. The Environment Division will work collaboratively with all City Departments to ensure that climate change considerations, policies, and actions are effectively integrated and implemented into policy design and decision-making. The horizon for this Climate Change Action Plan will be to 2030 with strategic priorities aligned to a 2050 timeframe. This will align the plan with international, federal, and provincial targets and action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 15 per cent below 1990 levels by 2020 and 80 per cent by 2050. The Plan is an essential step towards building a greener, healthier, and more resilient low-carbon community.