Climate change is threatening human well-being and the habitability of the planet. It will affect us both directly, through things like heat waves and wildfire and flooding, but also indirectly through the deterioration of nature, which will affect our food supply, our water, our shelter, and more. This is an emergency that we have on our hands now. It’s not background noise or something in the future. And our window to tackle this problem is very rapidly closing. We need to take action now.

Lisa Levin, Ph.D., Scripps Institution of Oceanography and IPCC Author

The Nanaimo Climate Pledge is an integrated climate outreach project, designed to discover which method(s) will best encourage individuals and households to take action on the climate emergency by reducing their CO2e emissions. The project is focused on the ‘middle majority’ - those who have some awareness of the climate crisis and its impacts, but for one reason or another have not yet taken any substantive action.

Our short term Phase One objective is to learn which methods of communication are the most effective, meriting expansion in Phase Two. To best accomplish this, we have partnered with the UBC Sustainability Scholars program and are working with Michelle Hak Hepburn, a PhD candidate in Anthropology, who specializes in surveying and data analysis.

Our long term objective is to launch an effective program province-wide, through a combination of private and public funders and partners. Depending on the success of Phase One, Phase Two may be a moderate expansion within the RDN, a larger expansion to multiple municipalities on the Island, or a full province wide expansion.

The Nanaimo Climate Pledge is open to residents of Ladysmith to Qualicum Beach, west to Port Alberni, and Gabriola Island.

Together we can make a difference.

Our project operates on the traditional lands of the Snuneymuxw, Snaw-naw-as, Stzuminus, Tseshaht, Hupacasath, and Qualicum peoples.