Climate, environment, and resilience
108 commitments from 8 parties, grouped by who published them.
Green Party of Vancouver 48
- Expand tree planting and neighbourhood greening projects, and support community gardens, pollinator spaces, and local stewardship initiatives.↗
- Encourage partnerships through the federal Deep Retrofit Accelerator Initiative and BC Retrofit Accelerator to fund climate-smart retrofits, and simplify conditions around green retrofits by reducing triggers for extraneous upgrades.↗↗
- Ensure every neighbourhood has access to climate-safe public spaces and buildings during extreme heat, smoke, flooding, and other climate emergencies, while investing in cooling, shade, and community resilience for those most at risk.↗↗↗
- Restore interdepartmental sustainability work to ensure new and retrofit construction is built cleaner and greener, prioritising resident health and comfort against a changing climate.↗↗
- Re-establish policies banning fossil gas heating for heat and hot water in new construction and return to standard emission reporting and targeting.↗↗
- Expand cooling, shade, and clean-air infrastructure throughout Vancouver to protect tenants from extreme heat and wildfire smoke.↗↗
- Return a standalone Sustainability and Climate Office to City Hall to lead climate action, clean energy, resilience, and environmental stewardship, with improved accountability and cross-departmental coordination.↗↗
- Expand emissions reporting to include embodied and lifecycle emissions to inform City decisions about long-term climate impacts.↗↗
- Mandate green roofs by-law on larger new and existing buildings to reduce urban heat, manage stormwater, improve biodiversity, and create a more resilient city.↗↗
- Streamline permitting, modernize regulations, and reduce red tape for rooftop and plug-in solar to expand access to clean, affordable energy.↗↗
- Strengthen tree protection bylaws, preserve mature trees, reward tree retention with development incentives, plant climate-resilient species with dedicated funding, tighten technical removal rules, require stronger replacement planting, make occupancy permits conditional on post-construction tree health reviews, and create a municipal arborist office.↗↗↗
- Maintain and strengthen Vancouver's Bird Friendly City certification.↗↗
- Support a Youth Climate Corps for Urban Forestry with matching funding to plant and maintain tree canopy expansion, providing living-wage climate work for youth.↗
- Require rezonings to increase the urban tree canopy and green spaces, particularly in areas targeted for new development and density, funded by a restored park acquisition developer cost levy.↗↗
- Ban the sale of prohibited invasive plant species in Vancouver and create an incentive program to help gardeners identify and remove invasives.↗↗
- Incorporate Natural Asset Accounting into City decision-making and budgets, treating trees, wetlands, waterways, and green spaces as critical infrastructure assets.↗↗
- Invest in climate resilience enhancements for public facilities and infrastructure, including cooling, warming, and air-quality upgrades, rain and storm surge management, blueways, greenways, bioswales, sewer separation, and eliminating raw sewage outflows.↗↗
- Ensure major infrastructure investment is designed for future climate conditions including heat, flooding, drought, and sea-level rise.↗↗
- Accelerate investments in seawalls, flood defenses, drainage systems, and shoreline restoration to protect against rising seas and extreme weather.↗↗
- Work with BC Hydro and regional partners on grid modernization, energy storage, solar power, and renewable energy solutions to strengthen electrical grid resilience and reliability.↗↗
- Score and integrate expanded tree canopies, rain gardens, urban forests, permeable surfaces, and cooling strategies into growth planning to improve climate resilience and livability.↗↗
- Continue investing in district energy—shared energy infrastructure to heat and cool multiple buildings—to reduce emissions, lower long-term energy costs, and improve resilience.↗↗
- Expand public recycling, organics, and waste-separation infrastructure city-wide, and add satellite Zero-Waste drop-off centres supported by industrial hubs at False Creek Flats and on Kent Avenue.↗↗
- Modernize the Kent Avenue Transfer Station as part of planned long-range capital upgrades to support waste and resource recovery.↗↗
- Strengthen local composting and organics recovery systems to improve service reliability, reduce emissions, and advance zero-waste goals.↗↗
- Divert pet waste from landfill through dedicated collection, treatment, and recovery systems.↗↗
- Support reusable foodware, takeout containers, and packaging in restaurants and public venues, and advocate to the province for extended producer responsibility covering common single-use items through a deposit-and-refund system.↗↗
- Facilitate energy retrofits of buildings as part of climate adaptation and mitigation.↗
- Promote zero-waste initiatives as part of climate adaptation and mitigation.↗
- Develop local clean energy as part of climate adaptation and mitigation.↗
- Examine safety, permitting, and equity requirements for small-scale plug-in solar systems, and coordinate with BC Hydro and Technical Safety BC to prepare Vancouver for this technology.↗↗
- Direct City staff to explore zoning and bylaw changes to support better recycling infrastructure.↗
- Require improved recycling access in new multi-unit buildings.↗
- Identify locations where compact recycling systems could be implemented.↗
- Introduce a motion proposing community recycling hubs to improve access in dense, car-light neighbourhoods in support of zero-waste goals.↗↗
- Develop a 100-year plan for Vancouver's 28 km of coastal parks to address sea-level rise and biodiversity loss.↗
- Provide incentives to developers that protect significant trees.↗
- Provide dedicated funding for planting climate-suited tree species.↗
- Tighten rules on tree removal for construction logistics, while maintaining clear pathways for legitimate removals.↗
- Strengthen tree replacement requirements and canopy restoration after removal.↗
- Tie occupancy permits to post-construction tree health reviews.↗
- Establish a Municipal Arborist Office with in-house arborists to independently review tree assessments.↗
- Create a Youth Climate Corps offering living-wage jobs for young people planting trees.↗
- Pursue the 3-30-300 standard: 3 trees visible from every home, 30% canopy cover, and green space within 300 m of every resident.↗↗↗
- Plant native plants and establish micro-forests to support biodiversity through rewilding.↗
- Provide small grants for community stewardship of ecological corridors and green spaces.↗
- Restore wetlands and uncover buried creeks to improve flood protection and biodiversity.↗
- Upgrade city infrastructure to modern seismic standards.↗
OneCity Vancouver 13
- Introduce a flat, low-cost, streamlined heat pump permitting pathway for homeowners so that choosing a heat pump never costs more in permit fees than replacing with a gas appliance.↗↗↗↗↗↗
- Directly install cooling, air filtration, and heat pumps in approximately 500 high-risk homes at an estimated gross cost of $4–$7.5 million, with net City costs reduced by stacking external funding sources.↗↗↗↗
- Establish a Public Rooftop Solar and Community Energy Program placing solar panels on schools, libraries, and community centres, with community subscription models so renters, co-op residents, and non-profits can access clean energy benefits.↗↗↗↗↗↗
- Within the first three months of taking office, formally identify every climate rollback made under the current ABC administration, reinstate retrofit and compliance funding in the 2027 budget, and enact bylaw and permitting changes in 2027–2028.↗↗
- Implement a four-year plan to bring every City, Park Board, and school facility in Vancouver up to a shared standard for air quality and temperature control, with facility assessments beginning in Year 1, a public retrofit schedule published in Year 2, and upgrades continuing through Year 4.↗↗↗↗↗
- Require resource-intensive land and energy users — including data centres, surface parking lots, and large luxury homes — to disclose and mitigate their impacts on public infrastructure.↗↗↗
- Restore climate leadership standards in building construction that were previously repealed, making buildings more future-proof and energy-efficient.↗
- Deliver reliable public garbage collection, expand public recycling beyond downtown, and establish a clear citywide service standard for waste disposal.↗↗↗↗
- Update the Urban Forest Strategy to raise the tree canopy target to 40%.↗
- Introduce water meters to lower utility costs for average residents and charge high-volume users more.↗
- Reverse the reduction in green retrofit bylaw enforcement, reinstate the ban on gas-powered hot water systems, disallow gas for space and water heating in new buildings, and restore the zero-emissions heating requirement for new low-rise buildings that was in place from January 2022.↗↗↗↗↗
- Deliver a comprehensive clean energy buildings program including topped-up BC Hydro solar and battery incentives, restored replacement requirements for aging gas equipment, a low-income retrofit program modelled on Edmonton's, and expanded thermal energy networks including the False Creek Neighbourhood Energy Utility.↗↗↗↗↗↗
- Charge heavy water users more, so large consumers pay a higher share of water costs.↗
COPE 12
- Develop a Climate Defence Strategy to upgrade infrastructure, empower communities to prepare for climate events, and apply circular economy initiatives and tool libraries.↗
- Implement a moratorium on AI data centres in Vancouver.↗
- Break the jurisdictional gridlock in False Creek to enable environmentally and socially responsible management of the urban inlet.↗
- Bring a motion committing to climate targets through food recovery measures.↗
- Block any future attempt by the current mayor to re-allow burning methane gas in new buildings, and support retrofitting electric heat pumps in existing buildings.↗
- Support circular economy initiatives and move aggressively toward a zero-waste economy through tool libraries, community repair programs, free stores, and electronics repair and recirculation programs.↗↗↗
- Re-join the "Sue Big Oil" lawsuit to hold large fossil fuel companies financially accountable for climate costs.↗↗↗
- Invest in tool libraries, circular economy initiatives, and zero-waste programs as part of the Climate Defence Strategy.↗↗
- Invest in local food production and create systems to reduce food waste to protect the food system from climate disruptions.↗↗
- Help communities prepare for climate events and disasters including heat waves, snow storms, and atmospheric rivers.↗↗
- Use Vancouver as a platform to push for climate justice provincially, federally, and globally, aiming to meet and exceed IPCC climate targets.↗
- Upgrade public infrastructure and housing to protect the city and save lives during future climate events.↗↗
TEAM for a Livable Vancouver 12
- Upgrade City infrastructure to withstand flooding, storms, extreme heat, drought, and other harsh weather events.↗↗↗
- Factor tree canopy, sunlight, drainage, local ecology, and heat-island effects into development decisions.↗
- Improve planting and maintenance of trees on City-owned land and boulevards.↗
- Implement a Local Environment Action Plan with emphasis on parks and green spaces, low-rise wood buildings, and weather-resilient infrastructure.↗
- Use incentives to encourage voluntary conversion of existing buildings to improved energy efficiency and zero emissions, rather than mandatory regulation.↗
- Prioritize adaptive reuse and renovation of existing buildings over demolition and new construction.↗↗
- Work with BC Hydro to reduce electricity costs to consumers by adjusting step energy charges to incentivize electrical use rather than discourage it.↗
- Make it easier to add electric vehicle charging in residential homes by reviewing and simplifying Building Code and regulatory requirements.↗
- Plan proactively for disaster and climate events throughout the city, including extreme heat events, and ensure the most vulnerable — such as low-income seniors and people in SROs — have access to air conditioning and/or cooling facilities.↗
- Adopt a local environment action plan prioritising trees, water, and environmental infrastructure in every neighbourhood.↗
- Strengthen tree-retention requirements, expand planting in neighbourhoods with inadequate canopy, and ensure development leaves enough room for healthy trees.↗↗↗↗
- Prevent sewage and pollution from entering local waterways, improve water-quality monitoring, and upgrade aging sewer, stormwater, and drainage infrastructure.↗↗↗↗
Annette Reilly 9
- Restore a standalone Sustainability and Climate Office at City Hall.↗
- Work toward the 3-30-300 urban forestry goal.↗
- Protect mature trees and expand Vancouver's tree canopy.↗
- Increase climate-resilient planting and green infrastructure.↗
- Expand access to cooling spaces during extreme heat events.↗
- Improve access to clean air during wildfire smoke events.↗
- Strengthen flood and sea-level-rise planning.↗
- Support building decarbonization and green retrofits.↗
- Treat trees, wetlands, creeks, and other natural assets as essential infrastructure.↗
Vancouver Liberals 7
- Explore underground bins, fill-level sensors, and automated sorting to reduce collection costs and divert waste from landfill.↗
- Add recycling depots across the city, run a food-waste diversion campaign, and publish an open dashboard showing waste reduction progress.↗↗
- Plant more street trees in the neighbourhoods with the least tree cover and highest heat exposure.↗
- Fund a Youth Climate Corps that hires young people at living wage to plant and care for trees in low-canopy neighbourhoods, restore habitat, and support neighbours through heat waves and smoke events, building skills for green economy and trades careers.↗
- Keep community centres and libraries open late as cooling and clean-air spaces during heat or wildfire smoke warnings.↗
- Maintain zero-carbon building standards and fund the Climate Emergency Action Plan with public reporting on progress.↗
- Fund the Healthy Waters Plan (wastewater segregation project) so that separation of rainwater and sewage systems is completed by 2040, advancing the target from the current projected completion of 2070.↗↗↗↗
Vote Vancouver 4
- Maintain Vancouver's 30% tree-canopy target while separately tracking mature canopy and new plantings.↗
- Reinstate Energize Vancouver and focus on practical measures to reduce building emissions, improve energy performance, and strengthen climate resilience.↗
- Unpause the Energize Vancouver emissions-reporting program so the City can understand where building emissions are coming from and measure progress.↗
- Maintain the existing requirement for electric space and hot-water heating in new buildings.↗
TrueBlue Vancouver 3
- Repeal municipal green building mandates, complex retrofit requirements, and gas-stove bans.↗
- Direct engineering resources and tax dollars to storm-sewer upgrades, drainage pathway clearance, dike maintenance, seawall repairs, and coastal-defence reinforcement instead of other environmental projects.↗
- Maintain community centre cooling infrastructure and urban trees through municipal budgeting, keeping civic pools, community centres, and ice rinks fully functional and accessible during summer heat waves, without imposing heat-related regulations or taxes on private property owners.↗