The Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) is excited to announce that the third cycle of the US$2 million Environmental Justice for Climate (EJ4Climate) Grant Program is now open for applications for projects on “Community empowerment strategies to improve resilience to extreme weather events in urban settings”.
Program Details
The EJ4Climate Grant Program provides funding directly to community-based organizations and seeks to support environmental justice by facilitating the involvement and empowerment of communities searching for solutions and the development of partnerships to address their environmental and human health vulnerabilities, including those due to climate change impacts.
The EJ4Climate program supports underserved and vulnerable communities, Indigenous communities, low-income communities, and communities with heightened risk and increased sensitivity to climate change. These communities often already face greater exposure to, or risks from, climate impacts and have less and fewer resources to cope with, adapt to, or recover from them. The degree of risk and sensitivity stems from physical, social, political, and/or economic factors, which interact with each other and are exacerbated by climate impacts. These factors include, but are not limited to, race, class, gender, sexual orientation and identification, national origin, and income inequality.
The grant program also seeks to foster climate resilience by improving the capacity of communities to prepare for, withstand, respond to, and recover from hazardous events or disturbances related to climate change, which pose risks to human and environmental health, cultural resources, the economy, and quality of life. These extreme events are expected to create further challenges to protecting human health and welfare and the environment, and impact the vulnerable and underserved, and Indigenous communities, disproportionately.
Funding Information
The CEC encourages applicants to submit proposals up to C$200,000 and will consider additional funds (where available) for exceptional projects.
The CEC recognizes that a project can have a great impact at a low cost; therefore, no minimum grant amount has been established.
Projects are funded for a duration of 12 (twelve) to 24 (twenty-four) months.
Eligibility Criteria
Eligible applicants include nonprofit and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), civil society groups, environmental groups, community-based associations, faith-based organizations, tribal nations, and Indigenous Peoples and communities.
Specifically, applicants should be a “community-based organization,” meaning a nongovernmental organization that has demonstrated effectiveness as a representative of a community or a significant segment of a community and that helps members of that community or segment obtain environmental, educational, or other social services.
Universities, and academic and public research institutions are not eligible to apply but may be involved by teaming up with community-based organizations to support their applications and serve as community partners. Grantees must be located in Canada, Mexico or the United States.
Ineligible
This program does not provide support to businesses, private individuals, universities and academic and public research institutions, or municipal, provincial/state, territorial and federal governments, except for tribal nations, and Indigenous Peoples and communities. However, proposals from qualified organizations partnering with the private sector or local government entities are eligible. Additionally, grants cannot be used to support potential applicants who are currently receiving or applying for funding from Environment and Climate Change Canada for their proposed projects.
The CEC cannot accept applications from an applicant whose employee or officer is an immediate family member of:
An official from any of the Parties to the Agreement on Environmental Cooperation (ECA) (i.e., the Government of Canada, the Government of the United States of America, or the Government of the United Mexican States), or who served in that position within the past year;
An official of the CEC Secretariat or one who has served in that position within the past year;
A present or past member (within the past year) of the CEC Joint Public Advisory Committee (JPAC); or
A present or past member (within the past year) of the domestic advisory committees.
