Municipal governments play a crucial role in land use planning and management in climate change, as noted in the Milestone document of Canada’s 2023 National Biodiversity Strategy, which, as a draft document, is currently open for public comment until February 9, 2024. To facilitate “[e]nsuring a whole-of-government approach to create policy coherence across environmental, economic, and social mandates”, as called for in the Milestone document, it is worth asking how can municipal governments facilitate equitable approaches to climate change adaptation?
Both the USDN Guide to Equitable Community-Driven Climate Preparedness and the ICLEI Equitable Climate Change Adaptation Report (that draws from the USDN Guide) offer a framework for local and municipal governments to develop equitable and inclusive climate change adaptation strategies. Both documents encourage a systems-based approach to identifying historical inequities in community planning and how the impacts of climate change across communities are assessed, knowing that “climate change vulnerability[ies] are not evenly spread.”
Equitable climate change adaptation involves municipalities and partners fostering equitable and inclusive participation leading to community-driven approaches to climate change adaptation. Drawing from the USDN guide, the ICLEI report elaborates on three equity objectives for local governments engaging in inclusive climate change adaptation strategies; these are procedural, distributional, and structural. Procedural objectives address the fair transparent inclusive processes and treatment of people, and highlights engaging participants from “communities disproportionately impacted by climate change.” Distributional objectives address an equitable distribution of resources and of the benefits and burdens associated with projects. Resources should also prioritize communities that experience “the greatest impacts, inequities, and unmet needs.” Structural objectives “commit to correct past harms and prevent unintended consequences” as well as address the inequities undergirding structural and institutional systems.
The ICLEI report offers a step-by-step approach to making the case for municipal governments to center equity in climate change adaptation and offers examples for climate change impacts on equity issues including, housing and homelessness, energy security, food security, and green infrastructure and public space. The report also highlights three associated project types, offering examples of adaptation infrastructure projects, adaptation plans and policies, and programming for climate adaptation, including the Project Watershed: Kus-kus-sum involving a partnership with K’ómoks First Nation and the City of Courtney in British Columbia, and related subsequent restoration plans.
Over 61 cities from around the world – including 23 Canadian cities – signed the Montreal Pledge (since it was proposed at COP15 in 2022) to undertake tangible actions to protect biodiversity. Several cities, including Montreal, Vancouver, and Quebec City also endorsed the Edinburgh Declaration, which recognizes “the contributions by subnational governments (including cities and local authorities) to the achievement of global diversity goals and targets” as laid out in the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF).
Knowing that municipal leaders play a key role in determining how to “halt and reverse” the loss of biodiversity in cities, it is vital for cities to consider how to move from their intentions for equity in climate change adaptation, to achieving measurable outcomes.
By Leela Viswanathan
(Image Credit: Rich Martello, Unsplash)
The post A Framework for Equitable Climate Change Adaptation for Municipalities appeared first on Indigenous Climate Hub.
A Framework for Equitable Climate Change Adaptation for Municipalities
The case shows that climate change is a fundamental human rights violation—and the victory of Bonaire, a Dutch territory, could open the door for similar lawsuits globally.
From our collaborating partner Living on Earth, public radio’s environmental news magazine, an interview by Paloma Beltran with Greenpeace Netherlands campaigner Eefje de Kroon.
A Tiny Caribbean Island Sued the Netherlands Over Climate Change, and Won
Climate Change
Greenpeace organisations to appeal USD $345 million court judgment in Energy Transfer’s intimidation lawsuit
SYDNEY, Saturday 28 February 2026 — Greenpeace International and Greenpeace organisations in the US announce they will seek a new trial and, if necessary, appeal the decision with the North Dakota Supreme Court following a North Dakota District Court judgment today awarding Energy Transfer (ET) USD $345 million.
ET’s SLAPP suit remains a blatant attempt to silence free speech, erase Indigenous leadership of the Standing Rock movement, and punish solidarity with peaceful resistance to the Dakota Access Pipeline. Greenpeace International will also continue to seek damages for ET’s bullying lawsuits under EU anti-SLAPP legislation in the Netherlands.
Mads Christensen, Greenpeace International Executive Director said: “Energy Transfer’s attempts to silence us are failing. Greenpeace International will continue to resist intimidation tactics. We will not be silenced. We will only get louder, joining our voices to those of our allies all around the world against the corporate polluters and billionaire oligarchs who prioritise profits over people and the planet.
“With hard-won freedoms under threat and the climate crisis accelerating, the stakes of this legal fight couldn’t be higher. Through appeals in the US and Greenpeace International’s groundbreaking anti-SLAPP case in the Netherlands, we are exploring every option to hold Energy Transfer accountable for multiple abusive lawsuits and show all power-hungry bullies that their attacks will only result in a stronger people-powered movement.”
The Court’s final judgment today rejects some of the jury verdict delivered in March 2025, but still awards hundreds of millions of dollars to ET without a sound basis in law. The Greenpeace defendants will continue to press their arguments that the US Constitution does not allow liability here, that ET did not present evidence to support its claims, that the Court admitted inflammatory and irrelevant evidence at trial and excluded other evidence supporting the defense, and that the jury pool in Mandan could not be impartial.[1][2]
ET’s back-to-back lawsuits against Greenpeace International and the US organisations Greenpeace USA (Greenpeace Inc.) and Greenpeace Fund are clear-cut examples of SLAPPs — lawsuits attempting to bury nonprofits and activists in legal fees, push them towards bankruptcy and ultimately silence dissent.[3] Greenpeace International, which is based in the Netherlands, is pursuing justice in Europe, with a suit against ET under Dutch law and the European Union’s new anti-SLAPP directive, a landmark test of the new legislation which could help set a powerful precedent against corporate bullying.[4]
Kate Smolski, Program Director at Greenpeace Australia Pacific, said: “This is part of a worrying trend globally: fossil fuel corporations are increasingly using litigation to attack and silence ordinary people and groups using the law to challenge their polluting operations — and we’re not immune to these tactics here in Australia.
“Rulings like this have a chilling effect on democracy and public interest litigation — we must unite against these silencing tactics as bad for Australians and bad for our democracy. Our movement is stronger than any corporate bully, and grows even stronger when under attack.”
Energy Transfer’s SLAPPs are part of a wave of abusive lawsuits filed by Big Oil companies like Shell, Total, and ENI against Greenpeace entities in recent years.[3] A couple of these cases have been successfully stopped in their tracks. This includes Greenpeace France successfully defeating TotalEnergies’ SLAPP on 28 March 2024, and Greenpeace UK and Greenpeace International forcing Shell to back down from its SLAPP on 10 December 2024.
-ENDS-
Images available in Greenpeace Media Library
Notes:
[1] The judgment entered by North Dakota District Court Judge Gion follows a jury verdict finding Greenpeace entities liable for more than US$660 million on March 19, 2025. Judge Gion subsequently threw out several items from the jury’s verdict, reducing the total damages to approximately US$345 million.
[2] Public statements from the independent Trial Monitoring Committee
[3] Energy Transfer’s first lawsuit was filed in federal court in 2017 under the RICO Act – the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, a US federal statute designed to prosecute mob activity. The case was dismissed in 2019, with the judge stating the evidence fell “far short” of what was needed to establish a RICO enterprise. The federal court did not decide on Energy Transfer’s claims based on state law, so Energy Transfer promptly filed a new case in a North Dakota state court with these and other state law claims.
[4] Greenpeace International sent a Notice of Liability to Energy Transfer on 23 July 2024, informing the pipeline giant of Greenpeace International’s intention to bring an anti-SLAPP lawsuit against the company in a Dutch Court. After Energy Transfer declined to accept liability on multiple occasions (September 2024, December 2024), Greenpeace International initiated the first test of the European Union’s anti-SLAPP Directive on 11 February 2025 by filing a lawsuit in Dutch court against Energy Transfer. The case was officially registered in the docket of the Court of Amsterdam on 2 July, 2025. Greenpeace International seeks to recover all damages and costs it has suffered as a result of Energy Transfers’s back-to-back, abusive lawsuits demanding hundreds of millions of dollars from Greenpeace International and the Greenpeace organisations in the US. The next hearing in the Court of Amsterdam is scheduled for 16 April, 2026.
Media contact:
Kate O’Callaghan on 0406 231 892 or kate.ocallaghan@greenpeace.org
The Trump administration’s relentless rollback of public health and environmental protections has allowed widespread toxic exposures to flourish, warn experts who helped implement safeguards now under assault.
In a new report that outlines a dozen high-risk pollutants given new life thanks to weakened, delayed or rescinded regulations, the Environmental Protection Network, a nonprofit, nonpartisan group of hundreds of former Environmental Protection Agency staff, warns that the EPA under President Donald Trump has abandoned the agency’s core mission of protecting people and the environment from preventable toxic exposures.
Former EPA Staff Detail Expanding Pollution Risks Under Trump
A Tiny Caribbean Island Sued the Netherlands Over Climate Change, and Won
Greenpeace organisations to appeal USD $345 million court judgment in Energy Transfer’s intimidation lawsuit
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