City receives top international score on climate action

HAMILTON, ON – The City of Hamilton has been recognized as one of 122 local governments from around the world to receive a top score on climate action from the not-for-profit Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP). The City received a score of ‘A’ from the CDP which puts Hamilton in the top 12% of cities and counties globally.

To be eligible for consideration by CDP, the City submitted its community-wide emissions inventory, and climate action plan. It also completed a climate risk and vulnerability assessment and shared its climate adaptation plan to demonstrate how the City will tackle climate hazards through the implementation of Hamilton’s Climate Change Impact Adaptation Plan. This includes increasing the resiliency of our infrastructure through stormwater management design guidelines, helping people, especially our most vulnerable, prepare and recover from climate impacts, and better understanding the health impacts on Hamilton’s population through extreme heat and other weather-related health monitoring programs.

The City of Hamilton along with the other 121 local governments on this year’s A List are also celebrated for showing that urgent and impactful climate action - from ambitious emissions reduction targets to building resilience against climate change - is achievable at a global level, and in places with different climate realities and priorities.

Quick Facts

• Over 1,000 local governments received a rating for their climate action from CDP in 2022, an increase from the 965 cities and counties scored in 2021. In 2022, just over one in ten local governments scored by CDP (12%) received an A. The City of Hamilton has been reporting through the CDP platform publicly since 2015. In previous years, the City of Hamilton has received a ‘B’ rating since the CDP began scoring submissions in 2018.
• Nearly 20,000 organizations around the world disclosed data through CDP in 2022.
• CDP is a global non-profit that runs the world’s environmental disclosure system for companies, cities, states and regions. Founded in 2000 and working with more than 680 investors with over $130 trillion in assets, CDP pioneered using capital markets and corporate procurement to motivate companies to disclose their environmental impacts, and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, safeguard water resources and protect forests.
• On March 27, 2019, Hamilton City Council declared a climate change emergency and directed staff to form a Corporate Climate Change Task Force (CCCTF).
• Since 2019, the City has invested approximately $57.3 M in climate-positive actions including electrification of vehicles/equipment, cycling infrastructure, creation of parks, tree planting, and stormwater management. Hamilton’s Climate Action Strategy builds on this past work and includes detailed targets and future scenario analysis to inform the actions required to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and actions to prepare and avoid impacts from a changing climate.
• The City approved its most recent Climate Action Strategy in August 2022. It is comprised of two main pieces of work:

1. ReCharge Hamilton – Our Community Energy + Emissions Plan – This includes a technical low carbon scenario pathway for the entire community to reach net-zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2050 and specific actions to help get us there; and
2. Hamilton’s Climate Change Impact Adaptation Plan – This is an evidenced-informed plan that uses global and national climate models to identify future risks to the community and creates actions to help reduce, prepare and recover from the unavoidable impacts of climate change.