Description
Integrating climate change data and considerations needs to happen in day-to-day municipal operation, not just through major community or service delivery plans. The City has various policies and plans with a deliberate climate action focus (e.g., Energy Step Code Implementation, Community Wildfire Resilence Plan), many of which provide a clear indication of how climate mitigation or adaptation objectives are being addressed.
However, the City also needs tools to ensure that climate impacts, opportunities, risks and potential benefits and savings are systematically considered in all decisions, especially those where climate is not the major motivator.
The City makes important decisions every day, for instance when it decides to construct a new building, purchase new fleet vehicles, and improve services. There are key opportunities for the City to look at these decisions with a “Climate Lens”. A Climate Lens is a framework to incorporate climate change into decision-making processes and demonstrate municipal leadership.
There are multiple initiatives staff are undertaking related to this action:
- The City recently completed a study entitled "Applying a Climate Lens to the City of Kelowna Development Process". Staff from the Climate Action & Environmental Stewardship Department are working with staff from Development Planning to implement some of the recommendations.
- The City added climate criteria to rezoning application reviews, which get presented to Council.
- Staff are undertaking a 'climate lens for capital planning' study in 2025
- Staff in the Building Services Department were piloting a climate lens assessment for some of their projects.