Making Climate Costs Visible: Climate expense tagging for Canadian municipalities
Start tracking the true costs of extreme weather with a practical and consistent approach using this resource.
When an extreme weather event hits, municipalities absorb costs that can become difficult to see—scattered across departments, budgets, and accounts. As a result, councils, finance departments, and emergency management staff often cannot answer a question that should be simple: What did that extreme weather event actually cost us?
This resource offers a practical introduction to climate expense tagging. It provides a simple approach municipalities can use to identify, record and track weather-related expenses within their existing financial systems. By building a consistent record over time, municipalities can better understand the financial toll of extreme weather and build a stronger evidence base for budgeting, investment, and climate adaptation decisions.
In this resource, you’ll find:
- An introduction to climate expense tagging and why it matters;
- Six simple steps to get started in your municipality;
- A City of Windsor case study on tracking weather-related expenses; and
- A downloadable, adaptable Excel model with a code book, climate expense sheet, and analysis dashboard.
Explore this resource to learn how your municipality can track the financial impacts of extreme weather and make a stronger case for climate resilience investments.
This resource was developed in response to user needs identified by the Ontario Resource Centre for Climate Adaptation (ORCCA) and the Advancing Implementation Training Initiative (AITI). ORCCA is led by ICLEI Canada and with financial support from the Government of Canada through Environment and Climate Change Canada. The AITI project was carried out with funding from the Federation of Canadian Municipalities’ Green Municipal Fund (GMF) and the Government of Canada. Delivered by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, GMF manages approximately $2.4B in programs funded by the Government of Canada.
