As we enter 2025, the LC3 Network is powering up its mission to accelerate climate action through a portfolio of strategic grants and programs, impact investing, policy work and knowledge mobilization activities.
In the coming year, the Network aims to catalyze climate action by targeting $7.7M in community granting, $12.9M in direct investment opportunities and $27.1M into local LC3 programs designed to fill gaps in important areas of climate action work at the local level.
The LC3 Network currently has 24 programs active or in development. The ability to develop programs run directly by the LC3 Centres or in co-operation with local partners is one of LC3’s key strengths, fostering nimble response to local opportunities that might otherwise go unaddressed. LC3 programs also provide a strategic platform to convene local collaborators or tackle barriers to key carbon reduction strategies in impactful ways. The approach also ensures that co-benefits are integrated into carbon action program designs and that these benefits are set to strengthen equity in our communities.
Doubling down on buildings and transportation
The majority of LC3 programs are currently focused on reducing carbon emissions from buildings—which are typically the major source of carbon emissions in Canadian cities. LC3 is grateful to have received support in 2024 from Natural Resource Canada’s Deep Retrofit Accelerator Initiative (DRAI), via successful applications from our local centres in Halifax (HCi3), Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area (TAF), Calgary and Edmonton (CIF), and Metro Vancouver (ZEIC). Together, these four LC3 retrofit accelerator programs are poised to drive $50M worth of work to take high impact retrofit action to scale in Canadian cities, bringing benefits like long-term reductions in energy expenditures for building owners, local job creation and improvement of aging building stock.
Programs are also being used to support the reduction of carbon and local air pollution while creating equitable access to transportation. For example, TAF’s Accelerating EV Uptake program will continue driving the shift to electric transportation for both people and goods across the region, with particular emphasis on increasing access to affordable and reliable EV charging infrastructure which is essential to EV adoption. And in Montreal, the Greater Montreal Climate Fund is building on the learnings of previously supported projects and its engagement efforts with local partners to advance a sustainable transportation financing program by identifying potential partners and testing models to address existing barriers.
Reconciliation and inclusion priorities
LC3 Centres are actively advancing five programs focused on integrating equity, diversity and inclusion into urban climate action design and exploring ways to address Indigenous Reconciliation in climate work.
To go further, HCi3 is building on their granting experience in this area, developing an internal climate, equity and Reconciliation program in 2025 to pursue continuous learning and improvement in this area. This initiative will also explore ways to engage other regional funders to improve the flow of resources to Mi’kmaw, African Nova Scotian and other racialized communities in the Halifax region.
In Alberta, CIF has partnered with Kambo Energy Group to deliver the province’s first low-income home retrofits program. The Home Upgrades Program is designed to make energy costs more affordable for households experiencing poverty in Alberta by installing home upgrades based on each household’s unique needs, such as new windows, furnaces and insulation.
Addressing top community concerns
Other programs take hold of place-based challenges, and leverage champions and opportunities to advance climate action and co-benefits from various angles. An emerging program in Vancouver is squarely focused on economic development, with a goal to ensure that the voices of British Columbia businesses and workers are included in the pursuit of cleaner prosperity in the province. ZEIC’s Economic Development & Market Transformation program advances this work by running capacity-building programs, supporting economic decision-makers, convening industry groups and providing cutting-edge research on economic opportunities and risks to better navigate the energy transition.
In Ottawa, the Ottawa Climate Action Fund is revealing a quick, effective option to help expand affordable housing—one that is hiding in plain sight. Their Fill it First program explores how underutilized buildings can help get more homes into the market more quickly and at lower cost via homeshares, secondary suites and duplex conversions.
With programs representing a key ingredient in the LC3 Network’s special sauce, lessons learned from the design and delivery of local LC3 programs will continue to be captured, allowing for a deeper understanding of how place-based work can scale into opportunities that accelerate climate results across Canada.