Climate Finance for Canadian Cities

The scientific evidence on the extent and impacts of climate change in both human and natural environments is regularly assessed and consolidated by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a panel of international scientists established in 1988 by the World Meteorological Organization and the United Nations Environmental Program (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 2014: 2–15; [...] Extreme weather damage ripples through the economy of a region and affects long-term economic growth and the fiscal health of municipalities (Hallegatte, Bangalore and Jouanjean 2016).13 It may even damage the credit rating of businesses and governments and thus affect the future affordability or availability of credit (Tanner et al. [...] Depending on the severity of the dislocations, we could see municipalities struggling to recover as their population moves on; the example of the fires that destroyed parts of Fort McMurray suggests that the recovery of social bonds and community life can be equally or more challenging than the rebuilding of physical infrastructure (Markusoff 2017; Thurton 2016). [...] Except for the City of Toronto and the Regional Municipality of York, ARLs are calculated based on a formula that amounts to 25 percent of the operating, own-source revenues of a municipality in a year, minus debt payments and other financial liabilities.29 Municipalities can exceed their ARLs only with the approval of the Ontario Municipal Board.30 Toronto is the only exception in Ontario, as it [...] Apart from national standards in jurisdictions such as India and China (CBI 2016b: 1, 3),35 the two major international sets of standards that serve as guidelines for the use of proceeds and their classification are voluntary: the Green Bond Principles, developed by the International Capital Market Association, and the Climate Bond Standards, developed by the Climate Bonds Initiative.