Take Action Burlington

Burlington is one of 25 Canadian municipalities that successfully completed the Showcase Cities pilot focusing on local climate action. Municipalities are on the front lines of climate change. By participating in this pilot, Burlington has been recognized as a leader on local climate action both nationally and internationally.

As reported in a Dec. 2019 Take Action Burlington blog post, Burlington joined the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy (GCoM). This coalition of city leaders around the world are tackling climate change by pledging to cut greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (mitigation) and preparing for the future impacts of climate change (adaptation).

In 2019, Burlington was selected to join the first Showcase Cities cohort led by GCoM Canada. As a member of this network Burlington received free technical support, training, networking opportunities and access to tools and resources.

Through this pilot program, Burlington achieved a mitigation badge for having a target and a plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Burlington’s dashboard on the GCoM website is being updated to show the awarded badge and phases.

City Council approved Burlington’s Climate Action Plan in April 2020. Work is now underway to implement the plan.

City staff are also working towards completing the phases needed for the climate adaptation badge. Stay tuned to future posts about this work.

Who is the Global Covenant of Mayors (GCoM) Canada?

GCoM Canada is a collaboration between the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM), ICLEI-Local Governments for Sustainability, the Global Covenant of Mayors Secretariat and the International Urban Cooperation Project supported by funding from the European Union.

What is the Showcase Cities Pilot?

The initiative combines two leading domestic climate programs, FCM’s Partners for Climate Protection (PCP) program and ICLEI-Local Governments for Sustainability’s Building Adaptive and Resilient Communities (BARC), with the leading global climate program. GCoM Canada is piloting this approach, which will build on FCM and ICLEI’s more than 25 years’ experience in delivering climate change programs in Canada. 

About the Global Covenant of Mayors Canada partners

The Federation of Canadian Municipalities is the national voice of municipal governments, with 2,000 members representing more than 90 per cent of the Canadian population.

ICLEI- Local Governments for Sustainability is an international association of local governments committed to sustainability. The Canada offices work with local governments across the country to meet with their sustainability objectives.

The International Urban Cooperation (IUC) programme is part of a long-term strategy by the European Union to foster sustainable urban development in cooperation with both the public and private sectors.

The Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy (GCoM) is the largest global alliance for climate leadership, uniting a global coalition of over 10,000 cities and local governments. By 2030, GCoM cities and local governments could collectively reduce 1.3 billion tons of CO2 emissions per year. That’s the equivalent of taking 276 million cars off the road.