How to get everyone in oil towns on board with energy transitions

Nest City author Beth Sanders works with citizens, governments and businesses and community organizations looking for practical ways to navigate the complexities of city life.

Transition is naturally about feeling uncomfortable. When we’re comfortable, it probably means nothing changes because we’re enjoying the ease of the status quo.

Cities everywhere must negotiate and manage the complexities that come with the diverse views and perspectives that make consensus on climate action challenging. Is an energy transition needed? Which measures make sense? Who should act when? Who should pay for this?

This is particularly difficult for cities at the epicenter of conventional, energy-focused economies like Edmonton and Calgary. Local governments, business communities, community organizations and citizens call me when they face this type of challenge and find they don’t know how to work together. I am continually invited to the heart of urban conflict, and I have found that bringing these historically divided groups together is a profound way for cities to make decisions and act. Three principles guide my work at any scale, from small projects, like helping City Hall and developers to devise new strategies for sharing infrastructure costs to accommodate increased density, to planning an entire city.

City work belongs to everyone

Cities are a chaotic web of relationships and interests, desires and priorities, where no single person — or industry — is in control of the future. Governments, business leaders, community organizations and citizens have a unique and interconnected role in making legislation, innovating and ensuring that our cities serve their citizens well. Leadership comes from those who bring these roles together and bind them together.

Jorge Garza works with the Community Climate Transitions Team at the Tamarack Institute, a 19-community climate change network. Building on their track record of supporting a movement of 330 communities that reduced poverty for more than one million Canadians, they are now focused on a just and equitable energy transition. The Climate Network works with communities to localize the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and build their capacity to host strong community engagement, develop a community-wide shared agenda, and track and report on results.

When it comes to integrating the perspectives of government, business leaders, community organizations and citizens, Garza notes that “in our cities we are not systematically coordinated in an inclusive and informative way. Everyone must be involved in the change process. government, business, everyone. We’re not there yet.”

Instead of thinking that everyone needs their own plan, successful cities tie the various plans together.The learning advantage for climate work should bring community government and to work together in a way that enables us to listen to one another and act together. Town meetings are not enough because we need to build our capacity to roll up our sleeves and work with, not just talk to, people we don’t normally work with. Tamarack’s work is critical to building our cities’ ability to connect and make a difference.

Practice thinking differently

Transition is tricky because it challenges us to think differently, not just about how we use energy, but about ourselves as well—and getting involved in a process of change.

As director in what was then the Urban Form and Corporate Strategic Development Department of the City of Edmonton, Kalen Anderson led the development of Edmonton city map. It was equipped with a carbon budget to guide city government decisions and accountability tools to link plan goals to budget decisions. Anderson invited her city to think outside the box as they created the plan for the capital of Canada’s oil and gas province, setting policy direction for the entire municipal enterprise and not just the city planners, with the expectation that everyone will work together to achieve climate targets.

Now, as executive director of the Urban Development Institute – Edmonton Metro, Anderson is focused on how the city the plan envisions will be built. Net zero building, for example, increases building costs. According to Anderson, “We need to look for ways to reduce other costs, such as B. the adaptation of infrastructure standards. A number of thoughtful compromises are required.” When it comes to housing, if these compromises are not made, we will have a city that is economically unattainable for its citizens. Will citizens tolerate paying more upfront for net-zero homes or narrow streets with less parking to avoid escalating house prices? Will policymakers muster the strength to overcome potential resistance to new ideas and make the necessary changes?

While Edmonton thought differently about how to plan for a climate-resilient city, the work is just beginning. To implement its plan, it must engage in divisive conversations and make the decisions that come with compromises.

The currency of city improvement is relationships

By cultivating meaningful relationships, we learn to work well with ideas and interests beyond the status quo.

Indigenous Business Leader Aaron Aubin is a Kwakwaka’wakw man residing in the traditional Treaty 7 First Nations and Métis Nation territory of the Alberta 3 region. Based in Calgary, he runs a consulting firm that supports Indigenous nations, governments and businesses across Canada. Aubin notes that cities and businesses benefit economically and culturally from engaging in conversations with indigenous peoples: “Across Canada, indigenous peoples’ ways of knowing and doing are essential for dialogue about how to build more sustainable and inclusive cities can, essential.”

The energy transition is an opportunity to incorporate indigenous knowledge into our city improvement work by building mutual relationships with indigenous peoples, their governments and indigenous companies. As we strive to build and maintain relationships with other stakeholders, we strengthen our collective ability—through our connections with one another—to take smart climate action.

Opportunity for economic and cultural change

Climate action can serve as an opportunity for economic and cultural change – if we are willing to work together with others in ways that feel unfamiliar, awkward and even strained. Feeling good may well mean that we are not doing anything new, and if we are not doing something new then we are not participating in our transition. The hard work ahead: learning how to work well together. Our survival depends on it.