Vancouver Climate Day 2025

NEW: We're excited to launch the. Check out the full listing of plenaries, workshops, speaker and presenter bios for Vancouver Climate Day 2025.

Join us for the second Vancouver Climate Day — a full-day gathering of policymakers, climate advocates, researchers, and industry professionals dedicated to accelerating bold, place-based climate action across the region.

Hosted in partnership with SFU Climate Innovation and the Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions, VCD2025 takes place Friday, September 26, 2025, and brings together diverse voices for a series of interactive workshops, knowledge exchanges, and strategic dialogues. The event is designed to foster cross-sector collaboration, elevate local leadership, and spark new partnerships to advance practical solutions.

Themes for 2025 include:
? Multi-Hazard Risk Assessment and Community Resilience – building readiness and capacity to address compounding climate and disaster risks

⚡Integrated Energy Systems for Communities – advancing local clean energy transitions through innovative, interconnected infrastructure

?️ Low Carbon, Resilient Neighbourhoods and Communities – designing and implementing community-scale strategies for sustainability and adaptation

? Indigenous Leadership and Climate Action – centering Indigenous knowledge, governance, and stewardship in climate solutions

? Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Climate – exploring the role of AI in energy systems, economic development and low carbon resilience

After the day's programming, we invite you to join us for drinks and a networking reception with fellow attendees. We encourage you to use this opportunity to build new networks and deepen existing relationships!

Whether you're working in public policy, academia, clean tech, Indigenous governance, or community development, Vancouver Climate Day 2025 is your space to connect, learn, and act.

Refreshments will be provided throughout the day. Lunch will also be served!

Washrooms are located on the lower level, second, third and fourth floors of the building. The venue has a gender-neutral washroom, available on the second floor in the east hallway. All floors within the building, including the venue and washrooms, are wheelchair accessible and serviced by elevators. How can we make this event accessible for you? If you have any questions, concerns, or comments regarding this event’s accessibility, feel free to connect with us at [email protected].

The SFU Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue is located at 580 W. Hastings St (enter by Seymour Street at Joe Segal Way), and is a brief walk from Waterfront station and numerous bus stops. Bike racks are available outside the Hastings entrance of SFU Harbour Centre (located across the street). Nearby parking is available at 500 & 400 W. Cordova St.

This is an inclusive event. By submitting your registration, you are agreeing to engage with organizers and other guests at the event in a respectful manner. Offensive or discriminatory behaviour and/or language toward event organizers and other guests will not be tolerated. Such behaviour may result in the removal or banning of the individual(s) from future events.

We respectfully acknowledge the unceded, traditional territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw (Squamish) and səl̓ilw̓ətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations, on which the SFU Vancouver campus and the SFU Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue building are located.

Info: As we approach COP amid the headwinds of large scale shifts in global policy that are affecting both attitudes and action on the climate crisis, Canadians are both adjusting their approaches, and continuing to innovate. In a conversation moderated by Deborah Harford, panelists Janna Wale, Jonathan Arnold, and Simon Donner consider the big picture from diverse expert perspectives, offering insights on both the challenges, and the opportunities.

Info: Join Siila Watt-Cloutier and Naatoi’Ihkpiakii Melissa Quesnelle to explore how transforming philanthropy to redistribute wealth, activate wisdom and strengthen organizational infrastructure for the purpose Indigenous Peoples, organizations, communities and Nations can benefit climate action.

Info: Join Urban Climate Leadership and leaders from the private, public and non profit sector as will build on our collaborative efforts to design and advance a Made-in BC Economic Development Strategy for transitioning to heat pumps in low-rise MURBs. This session will focus on our implementation strategy and next steps.This workshop follows a special educational and outreach series that Urban Climate Leadership and the Vancouver Sun are co-hosting to raise awareness about the challenges and opportunities of heat pumps for residents in BC. Registration is limited.

Info: Join SFU Renewable Cities and Movement YVR to share stories 'around the kitchen table' and take part in a collective discussion about experiences of riding public transit in Metro Vancouver. The session looks at transit experiences in the context of advocacy and climate action. Together we’ll explore the importance of everyday experiences of transit riders and how Movement is helping mobilize riders and advocate to decision makers for a better transit system.

Info: The small but mighty household is key to unlocking the energy transition, but doing so starts with understanding consumers. Informed by market research conducted in the Toronto and Vancouver regions, our analysis identifies the next adopters of clean technologies, their barriers, and the solutions they need.

Info: Clint Burnham will be speaking on the fungibility of climate grief: how does it “stack” against other forms of personal and political trauma? That is, in a psychoanalytic sense (here he draws on the feminist philosopher Mari Ruti), how do we prioritize our lack-in-being versus the “lack” caused by climate change?
Clint Burnham is a poet who teaches in the Department of English at Simon Fraser University. His Selected Poems is forthcoming from the87press and the monograph Mari Ruti and Climate Change: From Grief to Action will be published by Routledge in 2026.

Info: Social service sector organizations on Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside (DTES) support many of the city’s most marginalized populations. Systemic inequities and existing social vulnerabilities make these residents more disproportionately and severely impacted by climate hazards like extreme heat, smoke from wildfires and flooding. This workshop presents the DTES Climate Resilience Roadmap, a community-driven plan to strengthen capacity and resilience in the social service organizations that support them. A panel of community partners will share their experiences and insights on the path toward co-creating a more climate-ready Downtown Eastside. This session will be of interest to agencies and organizations responsible for the preparedness and safety of disproportionately impacted communities in Canada and beyond.

Info: Active transportation (AT) is key to creating neighbourhoods that are not only low-carbon but also safer, healthier, and more inclusive. This presentation will explore how investments in walking, cycling, and other forms of active mobility can help build communities where people of all ages and abilities feel safe on our streets, can connect easily to the places they need to go, and enjoy vibrant public spaces.

With a focus on equity, we will highlight how thoughtful AT planning can reduce barriers for historically underserved communities and ensure that everyone benefits from climate action.

Info: This panel explores the intersection of climate justice, mental health, eco-emotions, and community wellbeing. We’ll discuss how climate justice is central and inextricably linked to climate wellbeing, examine how the climate crisis impacts our health and emotional landscapes, highlight the challenges and opportunities in supporting climate wellbeing, and discuss ways people are taking action and building resilience. We’ll also reflect on the vital role of community care, connection, and art and creative expression in helping us navigate eco-distress and strengthen collective resilience.

Info: People working in climate change need to be skilled in the technical as well as the human. Climate action is not only about practical changes in technologies and systems. It also includes shifts in self-identity, livelihoods and culture. These human dimensions are crucial to overall successful implementation of climate action; when they are ignored or left unaccounted for, they can exacerbate polarized discourses and become sites of opposition. While technical skills regarding climate exceed our human skills, it is on the human aspects where climate action tends to stall.

This workshop combines current climate research into the worldviews, emotions, and beliefs that shape people’s response to climate action, with experiential learning by Sensemaking, Action, and Leadership Training (SALT) for Climate. You will come away with insights and practical tools for climate engagement, as well as a greater sense of support in this area of the climate challenge.

Info: Scaling Up Municipal Climate Action (Scaling Up) is a collective impact project led by five of Canada’s leading climate organizations—Community Energy Association (CEA), Clean Air Partnership, Climate Caucus, ICLEI, and QUEST. In this first-of-its-kind collaboration for systemic change, we examined the root causes of stalled municipal climate action and the opportunities for progress by reshaping the systems that constrain it. Using an iterative, collaborative design process informed by municipal staff and elected officials across the country, we identified persistent challenges, emerging leverage points, and a bold proposal for change: an AI-powered community activation approach that shifts focus and capacity from municipal-led, rigid, top-down planning to people-centered, agile, and responsive action.

Info: For years, the success of climate mitigation policy has been measured in terms of tonnes of carbon reductions. But British Columbians are looking for more—they want climate action that also improves affordability, health, resilience, and equity.

This session looks at how the indicators we choose—and the stories we tell—shape both the design and durability of climate policy. Building on PICS’ forthcoming CleanBC Insights Paper Series, we’ll ask: What new measures of success could help B.C. track value-for-money, resilience, and community well-being alongside emissions? And how might changing the way we share progress build public trust and push back against misinformation?

By rethinking not just what we measure, but how we talk about it, this session aims to spark a fresh approach to climate governance—one that connects policy decisions with people’s daily lives, makes the most of every dollar spent, and builds long-term support for ambitious climate action.

Info: Fueling AI integration and implementation, calls for larger and larger data centers, which in turn, need more and more energy (strain on the electric power grid) and water (for cooling systems). In the panel we’ll explore sustainable options to both power and cool the massive data centers and super computers required to support AI adoption. We’ll present how this is implemented at the Cedar Supercomputing Centre hosted at Simon Fraser University together with Corix and this model can be adopted elsewhere.

Info: Indigenous Peoples have been observing, experiencing and making sense of the climate change impact on their land, water and ice for a long time. In this panel, three Indigenous scholars share how they are working on climate change from and within their communities representing different environments. As a relationally woven network of Indigenous scholars with distinct approaches to addressing climate change, this panel highlights the significance of pluralistic, multi-modal, and strengths-based approach.

Info: Join us for a networking lunch to meet others working in climate-related sectors across Metro Vancouver. This is a great space to re-connect with old colleagues and/or discover new partnerships.

Info: Other Ways is a podcast launched by CityStudio where we explore alternatives to tackle the issues faced by the City of Vancouver in conversations full of imagination and real world solutions, ideas and questions that can help us envision...Other Ways.

Info: Explore how Canada is leading the transition to zero-emission aviation, with a focus on Vancouver’s role as a launch site for electric aircraft by 2030. This presentation highlights national policy, infrastructure plans, and real-world pilot projects shaping the future of sustainable flight across urban and regional air corridors.

Info: Stories matter. In this interactive session, guest speakers working at the intersection of wildfire and artistic expression will help us explore how storytelling in a broad sense of the word — through media such as film, visual art, poetry, and more — shapes our understanding and response to wildfire in the context of climate change. Together, we’ll consider questions such as: what kinds of emotional, cultural, and political understandings of fire emerge when we centre lived experience and artistic expression? How do dominant narratives shape action or inaction on wildfire? And what role can artistic practice and narrative creation play in climate action?

Info: A workshop around how older adults deal with increasing temperatures due to climate change. We will outline existing evidence surrounding heat-protective behaviour and factors/vulnerabilities that can put older adults at higher risk for negative impacts of heat.

Info: The Squamish Nation will present on the Climate Legacy Strategy, a community-driven framework developed through extensive engagement to advance climate action in Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Territory. The Strategy aligns with international climate goals, including net zero by 2050, and asserts the Nation’s Indigenous Rights under UNDRIP while laying out visions, goals, and Quick-Start actions for a sustainable and thriving environment for our future generations.

Info: Urban Climate Leadership is hosting a workshop focused on highlighting emerging trends and best practices for advancing approaches to AI that support equitable climate action at the local level. This workshop will explore the following questions:

What opportunities exist for AI to support equitable climate action in Canada’s communities?
Where does AI present a risk or barrier to equitable climate action?
What can we do together to mobilize AI for the public good?

This workshop invites participation from those working at the local level and beyond in order to ensure coordinated, systemic approaches to sustainable AI adoption, and equitable outcomes.

Info: Join the Zero Emissions Innovation Centre (ZEIC) to help shape their work to make high-impact climate jobs more visible and easer to enter. Learn from and about ZEIC’s different programmatic offerings, such as the Sustainable Workforce Coalition and Women for Climate. The session will debut new research from ZEIC on top up-and-coming jobs in the clean economy, available training and mentoring pathways, and give participants and chance to shape how ZEIC rolls out tools to help match would-be climate action workers to the jobs that can make a difference.

Info: The Marine Plan Partnership for the North Pacific Coast, or MaPP, is a partnership between the province of British Columbia and 18 partner First Nations. Together, the partners developed and are implementing marine use plans for BC’s North Pacific Coast based on traditional knowledge and the best available science. MaPP plans provide recommendations for marine management and inform decisions regarding sustainable economic development and stewardship of BC’s coastal marine environment.

Join members of MaPP’s Regional Coordination Team and representatives from partner First Nations to learn more about how this internationally recognized example of collaborative governance is taking action on climate change across the Great Bear Sea

Info: This panel will explore case studies and perspectives on governance, finance, and project development that are rooted in Indigenous knowledge systems and community leadership. Panelists Donna Morton, Ginger Gosnell-Myers, and Naatoi’Ihkpiakii Melissa Quesnelle will share stories and strategies that highlight pathways toward more equitable and sustainable approaches to climate governance. Moderated by Elodie Jacquet, the discussion will invite participants to consider how Indigenous-led models can guide transformative change in finance and decision-making for a resilient future.

Info: After the Closing Plenary, join us in the Atrium for drinks and refreshments. This is a great opportunity to network with other attendees and reflect on some of the learnings from the day together.

Host or Publisher SFU Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue