Unveiling inequity: Community perspectives on climate action planning in Ontario cities

Researchers have repeatedly demonstrated that climate change disproportionately affects equity-deserving groups and that climate policies do not necessarily reduce disparities. Planners and policymakers need to understand the needs of underserved communities to design responsive and equitable solutions. This study explores the self-identified needs and priorities of equity-deserving groups in three cities in Ontario, Canada, to develop a set of recommendations for more equitable climate action planning based on input from equity-deserving group representatives. Findings also contribute to clarifying whether universal criteria for assessing equity in climate action planning can reliably be used to compare progress across cities. • Equity challenges are cross-cutting but populations of concern are location-specific. • Equity-deserving groups report superficial forms of community engagement. • Policymakers need a better understanding of intersectionality. • There is low awareness of climate action among advocacy organizations. • Researchers need to make the connection between climate change and equity explicit.