The Ottawa Climate Action Fund (OCAF) is Ottawa’s Low Carbon Cities Canada (LC3) centre and exists to catalyze and scale low-carbon solutions to their full potential in Ottawa. We align this work with community benefit, bringing low-carbon initiatives, investments and people together to deliver tangible, lasting success.

For more information: https://ocaf-faco.ca/

Email: OCAF@ocf-fco.ca

The Ottawa Community Foundation’s Role

The Ottawa Community Foundation (OCF) led Ottawa’s participation in the development of the LC3 network. OCAF is a program of the Ottawa Community Foundation, which has a keen interest in establishing new backbone organizations in Ottawa to help drive positive, systemic and sustainable change. OCAF is governed by a committee of the OCF Board, the OCAF Committee, also referred to as the OCAF Advisory Committee.

Background

OCAF is funded with a $20 million endowment from the federal government as part of the Low Carbon Canada Cities (LC3) initiative managed by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities. The LC3 network consists of centres in seven cities: Calgary, Edmonton, Halifax, Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto and Vancouver.

LC3 is an ambitious plan grounded in 28 years of experience. Canada cannot reach its climate targets without reducing emissions from its cities. Yet many promising urban low-carbon solutions fail to progress from proven concept to full-scale implementation. The Atmospheric Fund (TAF) has been demonstrating low-carbon ideas and preparing them for scale-up in Toronto since 1991. Now, TAF’s model is being adapted for use in six other cities, through Low Carbon Cities Canada (LC3). LC3 is a partnership between the seven local centres and the Federation of Canadian Municipalities. LC3 will help city regions to reach their full emissions reduction potential while at the same time unlocking co-benefits for local communities.