Climate Action Plan

In January 2026, the City approved a Climate Action Plan (CAP), a critical step towards achieving the City’s long-term sustainability goals. The CAP supports Coquitlam’s ability to set policy and provide services that protect people and property, while planning for a lower-carbon, more resilient future. It focuses on actions within Coquitlam’s mandate and its ability to control or influence, leveraging partnerships to broaden impact and effect change.

About the Climate Action Plan

In its Environmental Sustainability Plan, Coquitlam set targets to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 45% below 2007 levels by 2030, and to reach carbon neutrality by 2050. The CAP is the next important step in Coquitlam's climate action journey. It works in collaboration with the Environmental Sustainability Plan and the Climate Adaptation Strategic Plan to more directly focus on the steps we can take to reduce or prevent greenhouse gas emissions — mitigation. These integrated plans position Coquitlam to protect people, infrastructure and ecosystems from climate impacts while reducing emissions. Ultimately, these plans work together to help us create a low-carbon, resilient city.

Climate Action Plan Themes

The Plan provides a focused, strategic roadmap for reducing emissions with 14 strategies and 45 actions across five focus areas guided by principles that ensure consistency and accountability:

  1. How We Move
  2. How We Build
  3. How We Consume
  4. How We Steward, and 
  5. How We Lead. 

The CAP is intended to be a clear, accessible, and visual document — something that City staff, the community and partners can easily navigate.  It includes five main focus areas with a sample of actions across each of these focus areas.  

The CAP is supported by a companion document, the Full Strategy and Action List, that goes deeper into the 14 strategies and 45 actions including timelines, anticipated costs and potential funding opportunities.

An Action-Oriented Approach

Each action in the Plan specifies the City’s role — leading implementation, advocating to senior governments, or supporting and enabling the efforts of others — with 26 underway (2026), 13 short-term, and 6 medium-term actions. All actions include timelines and implementation considerations, with progress guided by best practices in municipal climate action. The actions align with Coquitlam’s core values and strategic priorities.

Developing the CAP

The CAP was developed through collaboration with residents, community organizations, local First Nations, advisory committees, and community interest holders working closely with an interdepartmental City project support team. Consultants supported engagement and greenhouse gas emissions modeling.

Through extensive public engagement, over a three-phase process that began in the fall of 2022, the CAP Project had:

  • 10 interviews with community organizations serving vulnerable or marginalized communities to inform the engagement approach,
  • 435 public survey responses,
  • Seven in-person pop-up events engaging over 350 people,
  • Five community group engagement sessions with over 65 participants, and
  • Six online and public events, as well as in-person or virtual engagement opportunities engaging over 290 people including youth-focused events. 

The project saw more than 1,500 visits to the project webpage and engagement with more than 48,000 people via the City’s social media channels (Facebook and Instagram). All the details about the engagement process to develop the CAP is available at LetsTalkCoquitlam.ca/ClimatePlan. Ongoing engagement with climate action partners and community members will ensure that actions remain effective.

Related Strategies

CAP falls under the umbrella of the City's Environmental Sustainability Plan (2022), and complements the existing Climate Adaptation Strategic Plan (2020) that focuses on helping us prepare for climate impacts.

Many aspects of climate action are also being progressed through other existing and emerging City plans and strategies such as the Green Fleet Strategic Plan and upcoming Transportation Plan, Urban Forest Management Strategy and E-Mobility Strategy.

Together, these efforts integrate climate change considerations across municipal planning and operations, reducing emissions while delivering community benefits including cleaner air, healthier homes, more sustainable transportation, good green jobs, and thriving parks and natural spaces.

Reports to Council