The current state of municipal climate action plans in effecting positive social justice outcomes in Canada
File(s)
Published version
Author(s)
Radatus-Smith, Nicola
Jatkar, Harshavardhan
Morgan, Garrett T
Szeman, Imre
Hamilton, Ian
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Climate change is disproportionately impacting marginalised communities and exacerbating social injustices in Canada. Municipal Climate Action Plans (CAPs) are beginning to look at the challenges of the climate crisis and social injustices by incorporating language related to decolonisation, equity, diversity, and inclusion (DEDI) in their recommended actions. However, how DEDI is incorporated into CAPs remains underexplored. Therefore, this review evaluates the CAPs of 20 cities in Canada for the ways in which DEDI concerns are incorporated in their plans by using a framework that assesses the plans’ development processes, collaboration with stakeholders, ownership of actions, and evaluation methods. Our analysis finds that, in general, Canadian municipal CAPs do not go far enough in addressing social injustices. The results indicate that there is an opportunity for Canadian cities to revise their existing CAPs to address the identified gaps during the implementation process in ways that maximise positive and just social outcomes.
Date Issued
2025-06-17
Date Acceptance
2025-05-31
Citation
npj Climate Action, 2025, 4
ISSN
2731-9814
Publisher
Nature Portfolio
Journal / Book Title
npj Climate Action
Volume
4
Copyright Statement
© The Author(s) 2025 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
License URL
Publication Status
Published
Article Number
57
Date Publish Online
2025-06-17