Climate change is the most critical challenge of our time. Around the world, people are accustomed to thinking about climate challenges as future threats leading to sea level rise, disappearing polar ice caps and erratic weather events. However, we now realize the real and significant impacts of climate change in the present day. With rising temperatures and subsequent heatwaves, extreme rainfall events, tornados and snowstorms, climate change has been transformed from an abstract possibility to a global reality.
However, it’s not all doom and gloom. Every year, we see more individuals, citizen groups, organizations, businesses, and governments taking initiatives to tackle the climate crisis. People are coming together to create awareness, develop and new technologies and take concrete steps to mitigate the impacts of climate change.
At Clean Air Partnership we believe that through collaboration, we can put up a stronger fight against climate change. CAP has launched a Climate Action Atlas to showcase examples of climate mitigation actions undertaken by the Clean Air Council municipalities in Ontario. Clean Air Council is a network of over 30 municipalities and Public Health Units across Ontario that are committed to taking climate action.
The interactive Atlas highlights bold actions that accelerate climate action by dramatically reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The actions have a measurable impact on the ground and have the potential for scalability and replicability in other jurisdictions. We invite you to explore the atlas and get inspired to take up new and creative approaches to address climate change in your own communities. We also invite you to contribute initiatives through the online portal provided.
Climate change affects all aspects of contemporary life. Local climate solutions start close to home, with simple actions and lifestyle changes in our homes and neighbourhoods. Climate action also involves new ways of thinking, planning our cities, and reimagining our workplaces, neighbourhoods, and communities across the country.
Together, we can create a future where we use renewable energy to power our homes and businesses, where cities rethink their transportation systems, creatively manage waste, and communities come together to avoid the worst impacts of climate change.
By, Devanshi Kukadia, Research and Communications Manager