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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:
- Halifax Regional Municipality’s HalifACT
- Municipality of the County of Pictou Climate Action Plan
- Regional Greenhouse Gas Emission Reduction Opportunity Study for Municipality of the County of Kings, Town of Berwick, Town of Kentville, and Town of Wolfville
- Municipality of the District of St. Mary’s Climate Change Action Plan
- Carbon-Free Colchester Community Energy & Emissions Plan
- Municipality of the District of Lunenburg Climate Action Plan
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
- The Environmental Goals and Climate Change Reduction Act (PDF)(EGCRA) is the foundation of provincial climate policy and programs.
- Annual report on progress towards the goals of the EGCRA are published here
- Our Climate, Our Future is the Province’s plan for implementing the EGCRA.
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
- Powering the Transition: Nova Scotia 2025 Climate Change Risk Assessment. This provides a comprehensive analysis of climate change impacts to Nova Scotia and is a starting point for municipalities to prepare their own risk assessments.
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:
- Expanding active transportation infrastructure in Antigonish and Kentville.
- Significant provincial contributions to public transit projects including the expansion of ferry service in Halifax, and support for community transit,
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:
- Advocacy through the Climate Change Committee
- A webinar series that often features environment and climate change topics
- Presentations at recent NSFM conferences, including these from the Spring 2026 conference:
- Update from the Department of Environment and Climate Change
- "Mining in Your Backyard: What Municipalities Should Know” from the Department of Natural Resources
- Town of Berwick, “Stormwater Management Plan Development”
- West Hants Regional Municipality, “Response to the 2025 Province-Wide Drought“
- West Hants Regional Municipality, Windsor Stormwater Study - The NSFM Climate Leaders Award which has recognized municipal climate achievements since 2013.
- Content from the Low Carbon Leadership Conference
Ken Simpson Memorial Conference Fund
The Nova Scotia Federation of Municipalities (NSFM) is proud to launch the Ken Simpson Memorial Conference Fund, created in memory of Ken Simpson, who served as Executive Director of the former UNSM from 1990 to 2009. Ken was a dedicated leader who championed collaboration, learning, and excellence in municipal government.
About the Fund
Each year, two elected officials will receive:
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Free registration for NSFM’s Fall Conference
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A $500 travel allowance
Who Can Apply
The fund is open to current mayors, wardens, and councillors who:
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Demonstrate commitment to professional development and municipal leadership
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Face financial need or barriers to attending
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Show a clear vision of how participation will benefit their municipality and community
Application Requirements
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A statement (max 500 words) outlining your interest, benefits for you/your municipality, and any financial barriers
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Your municipality’s conference/training funding policy (or summary, if available)
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Optional: 1–3 supporting letters from municipal colleagues or staff
Deadline
Applications are due 4:30 p.m., Friday, October 3
Download the fillable PDF form Click Here
Submit applications and documents to jwebber@nsfm.ca
Successful applicants will be notified no later than two weeks before the conference.
For more information, please contact jwebber@nsfm.ca.
Main Streets represent distinct points of pride and sustainability for Nova Scotian communities. They facilitate safe and comfortable movement of people of all age and abilities, whether they are walking, cycling, driving, or using mobility devices. Shops and services on Main Streets are predominantly locally-owned and clustered together to benefit each other on streets that are vibrant, human-scaled, and express genuine local culture. The Main Street experience responds to local resident needs and attracts visitors and newcomers to explore, spend time, develop roots, and invest in the community.
The intent of the Nova Scotia Main Streets Initiative is to create momentum and identify opportunities for community-based approaches to improve Main Streets, while also providing considerations for government strategies, programs and policies.
Community Main Streets Assessment Method
Published in September 2021 and building on the momentum created by the Community Workbook, Phase 2 of the Main Street Initiative has gone a step further with a Main Street Assessment Method. The goal is to be a resident-friendly self-service tool for community members and leaders to assess Main Street elements in their own community by identifying what’s working well and what could work better. It will be a missing link to guide municipal and community leaders in leveraging their unique community strengths and opportunities.
A series of conversation prompts (in the pdf Conversation Guide and Ideas Book(22.54 MB) ) and worksheets (in the pdf Conversation Worksheets(7.04 MB) ) guide community members to ask themselves realistic and tough questions about what they need to do to strengthen their Main Street areas. This is intended to be a collaborative process bringing together multiple actors to develop a community vision for identified Main Street areas and, based on that vision, prioritize efforts and investments to support placemaking, economic vitality, and connectivity.
Engagement and the development of this project were facilitated by FBM in partnership with the Nova Scotia Federation of Municipalities’ Active Transportation Committee in 2020/2021. Input was provided by staff at Bicycle Nova Scotia, the Ecology Action Centre, Develop Nova Scotia, and the province of Nova Scotia (departments of Public Works; Public Health; and Communities, Culture and Heritage).
This project is supported by a Connect2 community capacity-building grant. These grants support reductions in Nova Scotia’s greenhouse gas emissions through community initiatives and local projects that promote clean transportation solutions, including active transportation.
The organizations below provided further support in input, with community engagement in Elmsdale, St. Peter’s, Westville, Hubbards, Canning, North Sydney and Sydney Mines.
Community Workbook
The pdf Main Streets Initiative Community Workbook(13.20 MB) was released on July 6, 2020 (read the news release), It summarizes research and community engagement conducted in early 2020 by a collaborative team focused on the Main Streets in Nova Scotia’s smaller towns, villages and communities, typically with populations of under 10,000.
This project was initiated by the Nova Scotia Federation of Municipalities Active Transportation Committee, working with FBM Architecture, Interior Design and Planning, and Bicycle Nova Scotia.
Community engagement and research for the Nova Scotia Main Streets Initiative was led by FBM, with assistance from the Ecology Action Centre, Develop Nova Scotia, Nova Scotia Transportation and Infrastructure Renewal, and Dalhousie University School of Planning students.
The work and associated engagement was also made possible by support and input from the following organizations: Cape Breton Partnership, Halifax Regional Municipality, Municipality of Chester, Municipality of East Hants, Pictou County Regional Enterprise Network, Municipality of the County of Richmond, St. Peter’s Economic Development Organization, and Town of Westville.
The combined interest of these organizations highlights the multi-faceted importance of understanding and investing in Main Streets in Nova Scotia.
Main Streets Summit
The culmination of the Nova Scotia Main Streets Initiative was a summit of people and organizations working on main street issues throughout the province. The Nova Scotia Main Streets Ideas Exchange happened on April 27, 2023, in Antigonish and was a chance for community leaders, elected officials, advocates, and placemakers to share aspirations and success stories for Main Streets and Downtowns in communities across the province
Agenda and Presentations
Nova Scotia Main Streets Ideas Exchange
Welcome Remarks
Main Streets Health Check
David Paterson, Brianna Maxwell - FBM Planning
Our introduction to the conference was an opportunity to hear from leading practitioners in the province active in creating Mainstreet strategies. FBM provided an overview of the Nova Scotia Main Streets Initiative and the resulting Workbook and Main Streets Assessment Method, along with examples of other communities taking steps to assess, identify and define their main street visions. Fathom Studios and Upland Planning + Design shared practical examples and lessons learned from main street projects across the province that have helped to reinvigorate main streets with respect to mobility, connectivity, health, and economic resilience.
Morning Keynote
Opening Session – Mobility and Safety for All
With a diverse cross-section of panellist perspectives from the public sector, private sector and local advocacy, we heard about the challenges they have faced as well as the successes as they relate to creating safer streetscapes for pedestrians, cyclists, and/or those with other mobility challenges. The panel discussed how a balance of modes can be achieved while recognizing that traditional vehicle movement is integral to bringing people to and through the main street areas, whether as regional residents or visitors.
Luncheon Keynote
Afternoon Session – Health & Belonging in Main Streets
Penelope Kuhn - N.S. Public Health
Main Streets are more than just places for buildings and streets, they must offer necessary and welcoming spaces for social and emotional connection and belonging. Along with nostalgia, main streets are important for bringing people together and creating a sense of renewal and reinvention, which affects our physical and mental health. Building upon the idea of Mobility and Safety for All, our panelists shared the often hidden value that main streets have in embodying peace and wellness, as well as creating an environment for active lifestyles that benefit our physical health and wellbeing.
Closing Session – Economy of Place – Cultivating Commerce
Craig MacMullin - CEED (Centre for Entrepreneurship, Education and Development)
David Phillips - Truro Colchester Partnership
pdf A Beating Heartland - Quality of Place in the Truro Colchester Region(11.57 MB) pdf ve(3.03 MB)
The economy of place speaks to the value that businesses bring to a community and a main street, where every community has something to market. The closing session looked at the successes and challenges facing local businesses in main streets and how a renewed or reinvented main street can lead to the attraction and retention of businesses. We heard about the importance of business incubation or succession planning and how a vibrant main street environment in smaller communities is necessary to attract new residents, as well as entice passing motorists to slow or stop in the town, when they otherwise may not have. With practical examples, panellists shared positive changes or initiatives in other communities across the province.
Closing Remarks
Kieron Hunt, FBM (Chair)
