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Environment & Climate Change

Environment and Climate Change

Climate Change and Nova Scotia’s Municipalities

Introduction

Nova Scotia’s municipalities are reducing greenhouse gas emissions and helping communities adapt to climate change.

  • Emission reduction projects are helping meet the provincial “net zero” target and are also contributing to benefits such as cost savings and improved public health. Municipalities are particularly active in the buildings and transportation sectors.
  • Adaptation projects to build resiliency are helping municipalities deal with extreme weather events like hurricanes, wildfires,drought and torrential rain. Municipalities are moving from emergency response to solutions that build resiliency so that we are all better prepared for the future.

This page is an introduction to how Nova Scotia’s communities are addressing climate change helping to sustain our health and quality of life.

NSFM’s work to support environment and climate change in Nova Scotian municipalities is supported by the Nova Scotia Department of Environment and Climate Change.

Municipal Climate Action

Planning for Climate Action

Effective actions begin with a good plan. A total of 33 of Nova Scotia’s municipalities have recently adopted climate plans or are working on them now. These plans ensure that actions are responsive to community needs and reflect local culture and capacity.

Climate action requires collaboration across municipal business units and with key actors in the community. Effective and inclusive planning helps establish the starting point or baseline, sets targets and actions to meet those targets and establishes an implementation framework to transition ideas and objectives into tangible results.

Examples of municipal climate plans in Nova Scotia include the following:

Mitigation - Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions

To help reduce emissions municipalities are implementing a wide range of climate change mitigation projects. Reductions are in a number of sector categories, including: 

  • Buildings: In Nova Scotia, Buildings account for about 11% of greenhouse gas emissions.  Examples of municipal activities to reduce emissions from buildings include renovating municipal facilities to be more energy efficient and providing low interest financing to homeowners to improve efficiency.
  • Transportation: The transportation sector accounts for about 35% of the Province’s greenhouse gas emissions. Municipal activities in this sector include operating public transit systems (including transitioning to some electric vehicles), supporting community transit, building active transportation infrastructure, new electric fleet vehicles (including at least one Zamboni) and installing electric vehicle charging.  These actions reduce emissions and provide new, less expensive, transportation options for residents.
  • Energy: This is the largest emitting sector in Nova Scotia with energy production, accounting for almost 40% of total emissions.Three Nova Scotian municipalities own and operate their own utilities and have been leaders in fostering renewable energy production and upgrading local grids.  Other municipalities are collaborating on solar and wind power generation, studying options for deep energy retrofits and investing in district energy.
  • Agriculture, forestry, and other land use (AFOLU): Municipal actions to increase housing density and concentration of services support reductions in the transportation sector and can complement reductions for energy and buildings.  Other examples include tree planting programs and watershed management.
  • Waste. Almost all Nova Scotian municipalities transitioned to extended producer responsibility (EPR) in 2025.  One anticipated result of EPR is reduced emissions.  
  • Other sectors include industrial processes and water and wastewater services.  These have not been key sectors for GHG reduction in Nova Scotian municipalities to date.
Adaptation 

To help prepare for the impacts of climate change and become more resilient, municipalities are implementing adaptation measures.  These include: 

  • Disaster resilience:  Municipalities have been very active in supporting emergency response to extreme weather events (e.g. wildfires, drought, hurricanes, torrential rain).  The goal is to move away from emergency response to longer-term resiliency from extreme weather through actions such as resident education, loan programs for residents to improve wells, enhancements to public water systems, and updated infrastructure to withstand new weather extremes.
  • Health and well-being: Municipalities help keep residents healthy and safe during extreme weather events.  Actions include providing comfort centres for residents impacted by weather events and supporting vulnerable groups such as seniors.
  • Nature and biodiversity: Natural systems have great potential to sustain communities.  Examples include building natural shorelines to address sea level rise, planting more trees, developing coastal protection policies.
  • Infrastructure: Municipal infrastructure like bridges, roads, and stormwater systems need to factor extreme weather impacts in their design and construction.  Municipal actions include new standards and techniques for resilient asset management, rehabilitating roads and trails at higher elevations in floodplains and coastal areas, and updating wastewater plants to withstand extreme weather events.
  • Knowledge and Understanding: Understanding how the climate is changing is critical for municipalities preparing for the future.  In response, many municipalities are preparing climate risk assessments.  Another critical action is working with the public to increase knowledge of how climate change is impacting them and action that they can take.   
  • Governance and leadership: Making the changes necessary to prepare for climate change requires new and bold actions from municipalities.  Examples in Nova Scotia include designating staff to co-ordinate climate and sustainability activities, declaring climate emergencies, reporting on the results of climate change activities, and collaborating with neighbouring municipalities.

Climate Action Partners 

Municipalities are supported by a variety of organizations who provide capacity and expertise to municipalities implementing new programs and services to address climate change.  Some of these include: 

  • The Clean Foundation’s Community Climate Capacity Program provides staff resources to municipalities to support planning, fundraising, project implementation and peer-to-peer learning.
  • Cycling Nova Scotia helps smaller communities plan their core active transportation networks.
  • The Atlantic Infrastructure Management Network provides training to help municipalities understand climate impacts and how to implement infrastructure adaptations going forward.
  • CLIMAtlantic is a partnership between the four Atlantic provinces to help communities build understanding and resiliency.  They provide direct access to experts, training, case studies and more.
  • Divert NS is a not-for-profit corporation championing recycling and resource recovery.  Divert NS manages Nova Scotia’s Beverage Container Deposit-Refund Program and the Used Tire Management Program and, starting in 2023, began administering the EPR regulations for packaging, paper products, and packaging-like products.
  • Efficiency Nova Scotia provides a range of services to help property owners transition to more efficient buildings.  One of their programs works directly with municipalities to analyze how municipal buildings can become more efficient and supports them during implementation.  
  • The Federation of Canadian Municipalities provides a wide range of funding and information resources through their Green Municipal Funds and supporting programs.

Provincial Resources 

Nova Scotia’s provincial government provides a range of programs and information to help municipalities address climate change.   Examples include the following: 

Nova Scotia’s Climate Change Policy and Plan

Water Resources

  • Water Resources Data Portal. This is a single online hub bringing together provincial data on groundwater levels, river and lake levels and flows, water quality, and weather, with interactive maps and charts. It's a useful tool for municipalities looking to understand water conditions and longer-term trends.

To help users understand and interpret the data in the portal, four companion data interpretation guides are also available:  

  • The Complete Guide to Protecting Your Family's Water: A comprehensive single guide for private well owners that replaces the former six-part booklet series and now adds water quantity information alongside water quality.
  • Private Wells in Real Estate Transactions: A three-part checklist for buyers, sellers, and realtors covering the well-related items each party should consider — including water quality and quantity — during a property transaction.
  • Cleaning and Disinfecting a Cistern: Step-by-step guidance for cistern owners on how to clean and disinfect their cistern, particularly following an extreme event such as wildfire or flooding.
  • Water Conservation factsheet (English): Practical tips for households on reducing water use and protecting their well supply, especially during dry periods.
  • The Drop on Water (English): A plain-language fact sheet series that helps owners interpret their well water test results, explaining common parameters such as bacteria, metals, and chemicals and what they mean for health.

Provincial Climate Risk Assessment

Coastal Protection

Provincial Coastal Action Plan. This specifies the provincial approach to supporting coastal protection. 

Coastal Hazard Mapping Tool.  This assesses sea-level rise and storm surge risks. Direct assistance from provincial Coastal Navigators is available by emailing coastalnavigator@novascotia.ca. 

Safe Guarding your Coastal Property.  This is a guide for property owners. 

Example text for municipal coastal land use by-laws.  This resource provides information on approaches and text that municipalities can use to develop legislation to protect coastal areas. 

Transportation

The Community Transportation program at Link Nova Scotia provides funding to non-profit community transportation systems across the province. 

Energy

The Community Solar Program provides funding and resources to organizations, including municipalities, considering building solar gardens. 

Wildfire Prevention 

The Department of Natural Resources provides information and resources to help communities and individuals prevent wildfires. 

Emergency Management

Extreme weather events like floods and hurricanes require co-ordinated emergency response.  The Department of Emergency Management offer various programs and services to support communities. 

Provincial Funding

Funding support from the provincial government has been essential for municipal climate change projects.  Some examples of provincial funding support include: 

The Sustainable Communities Challenge Fund (SCCF) is a provincial grant program for local action on climate change in Nova Scotia.  This program has supported green infrastructure, Flood risk mitigation infrastructure upgrades, Net Zero Community Buildings Project and much more. 

Low Carbon Communities (LCC) has been a provincial grant program delivered through the Nova Scotia Department of Energy. LCC provides funding for community projects in Nova Scotia that support cost-effective clean energy and low carbon solutions in the buildings, electricity, and transportation sectors. 

Funding for Emergency Response Organizations to help communities prepare for extreme weather events and other emergencies. 

Support for the Clean Foundation's Community Climate Capacity program  to enhancing municipal ability to address climate change. 

Co-funding sustainable transportation infrastructure projects with the federal and municipal orders of government.  These include: 

Various home energy efficiency initiatives including the Home Warming program and the African Nova Scotian Communities Retrofit Program. 

The Community Solar Program which helps community groups and organizations set up solar gardens on their properties and sell subscriptions for the clean electricity they produce. 

Funding for sector capacity and support in areas like coastal protection, funding navigation, and energy efficiency.  

Additional Resources and Links

The NSFM website has links to several environment and climate change resources.  These include: