As cities across Canada try to cut emissions from homes, a new Concordia study shows significant differences in how well they're doing it.
Researchers at the Next-Generation Cities Institute and the John Molson School of Business analyzed 1,283 building-related actions across the Climate Action Plans (CAPs) of 104 municipalities. CAPS are the frameworks cities propose to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and include goals, timelines and specific actions they will take.
The researchers identified 12 key elements that make retrofit programs successful. Examples include offering one-stop retrofit services, lowering borrowing costs, providing support for low-income households, setting retrofit standards and encouraging renewable energy integration.
The research team then evaluated whether each city included these elements and how robust their policy tools were - ranging from voluntary encouragement to financial incentives, public investment, or mandatory requirements.
The study found that many cities mention home energy retrofits, but fewer use strong tools - like mandatory standards, requirements for upgrades during major renovations or significant financial incentives - that actually push upgrades forward.
When weighted for policy strength, municipal scores were generally low: the national average was 23 out of 100. Results also varied by province and city size, with larger and mid-sized municipalities tending to score higher.
Alberta (led by Calgary) and British Columbia scored the highest on average. Ontario was mixed, with both strong and very weak performers. Quebec scored the lowest overall, suggesting many of its cities are still early in developing their building-focused climate policies.
Overall, the study shows that while many municipalities understand the need for home retrofits, only a handful are using the tougher, more effective policies needed to help residents cut energy use and emissions.
The study was published in the journal Energy Policy.
Read the cited paper: "Assessing the effectiveness of municipal climate actions: A scoring system for residential energy retrofit initiatives".
