Climate Change Policy Direction Paper and Survey

We are pleased to release the Climate Change Policy Direction paper for feedback. For access to the paper, please click on the term "Climate Change Policy Direction" throughout this update. After reviewing the information below, please take a few minutes to complete the following survey. The survey will be online until February 28, 2021.

We're also happy to accept any feedback through the email address RegionalOfficialPlanReview@RegionofWaterloo.ca or by mail at Community Planning Division (ROPR), 150 Frederick Street, 8th Floor, Kitchener, Ontario, N2G 4J3. We will use any comments or feedback to help draft policy regarding climate change to be integrated throughout the Regional Official Plan (ROP).

The Climate Change Policy Direction paper explores the following key messages:

1. Climate change is global problem with local causes and local solutions;
2. The Regional Official Plan (ROP) is a key document for directing local action on climate change;
3. The current ROP Review, which plans to 2051, provides an opportunity to align with the Region’s Green House Gas (GHG) reduction target of 80% by 2050;
4. Since land use and infrastructure locks in the amount of carbon a community uses, land use and infrastructure planning that is energy efficient and resilient to the impacts of climate change are essential to achieve this target;
5. Our current land use and transportation systems are energy inefficient and account for approximately 50% of GHG emissions;
6. The policy direction paper provides desired futures for how we move, how we live and work, and how build along with the “Big Moves” or changes needed to achieve the desired future and associated policies directions to implement them. (e.g., increasing intensification, providing for transit supportive densities in the Designated Greenfield Area);
7. Climate action is a lens that we will be putting on all of the work associated with the ROP Review; and,
8. Proposes policy directions related to our transportation system, growth, complete communities, net-zero carbon buildings, and energy resiliency.

To help you understand how the desired futures, changes and policy directions are connected, we’ve created summary placemats for how we move, how we live and work and how we build.

Other Climate Change Actions the Region is Taking

The Region is also working with Area Municipal partners and other community capacity holders through the ClimateActionWR collaborative, to develop a comprehensive community climate action plan. The plan will direct local action more broadly, including support for the proposed approach to land use and infrastructure planning, as well as direction for the full range of community capacity holders such as industry, institutions, community groups, and individuals.

The Region will also have a focused corporate climate plan that will direct internal corporate resiliency and greenhouse gas reduction actions. The Community Climate Adaptation Plan, approved by Council in 2019, outlines actions the community needs to take to adapt to a changing climate.