Supporting Climate Change Action in African Nova Scotian Communities

African Nova Scotian communities across the province will become more prepared to respond to climate change through a new program to be delivered by the ENRICH Project.

ENRICH – the Environmental Noxiousness, Racial Inequities and Community Health Project – has received funding from the Province to empower community-led action in response to climate change.

African Nova Scotian Affairs Minister Twila Grosse, MLA for Preston, made the announcement today, July 2, in East Preston, on behalf of Timothy Halman, Minister of Environment and Climate Change.

“African Nova Scotian communities are disproportionately impacted by climate change due to systemic inequities such as environmental racism,” said Minister Grosse. “Our government has committed to work on rectifying these historic inequities and empowering African Nova Scotian communities to respond to climate change, become more resilient to its impacts, seize opportunities to prepare, and better adapt to climate change.”

ENRICH will use the funding to:

• create and run a new African Nova Scotian Climate Justice Ambassadors Program to build skills and knowledge to address climate change impacts in communities
• hold climate change preparedness workshops for African Nova Scotian communities
• develop climate resilience community plans
• hire a project co-ordinator and project assistant
• partner with local organizations to support building climate change resilience in African Nova Scotian communities.

Communities that will benefit from this work include: Yarmouth, Greenville (Yarmouth County), Shelburne, Liverpool, Weymouth, Digby, Bridgewater, Kentville, Windsor, Upper Hammonds Plains, Lucasville, Beechville, Halifax, Spryfield, Dartmouth, Cherry Brook, North Preston, East Preston, Truro, Amherst, New Glasgow, Antigonish, Upper Big Tracadie (Guysborough County), Whitney Pier and Glace Bay.

Quotes:

“I am incredibly grateful to Nova Scotia Environment and Climate Change for providing my organization, the ENRICH Project, with generous funding to conduct the African Nova Scotian Climate Justice Ambassadors Program. This funding is providing me and my team with the necessary resources to create a community of practice of emerging African Nova Scotian leaders in climate organizing that can tackle broader systems change as it relates to climate change and related issues, such as housing security, food security, transportation and green space.”
— Ingrid Waldron, founder and Director, the ENRICH Project

Quick Facts:

• the ENRICH Project’s mission is to examine and address the social, environmental, political and health effects of environmental racism and climate change in Indigenous, Black and other marginalized communities across Canada
• the Province is providing $1.8 million to ENRICH through the Province’s climate change plan for this work
• this funding advances actions 8 and 53 of the plan – Our Climate, Our Future: Nova Scotia’s Climate Change Plan for Clean Growth – to support African Nova Scotian communities to address climate change inequities, as well as increase climate change adaptation capacity in communities, and Goal 17 in the Environmental Goals and Climate Change Reduction Act to fund climate change action and community-based solutions in equity-seeking communities
• in 2023, ENRICH received $250,000 from the Province’s Sustainable Communities Challenge Fund to prepare climate change preparedness plans for 12 African Nova Scotian communities
• the Environmental Goals and Climate Change Reduction Act also created an Environmental Racism Panel to help address historic environmental racism in Nova Scotia; this panel is finalizing their final report to the government now

Additional Resources:

The ENRICH Project: https://www.enrichproject.org/

Environmental Goals and Climate Change Reduction Act: https://nslegislature.ca/sites/default/files/legc/statutes/environmental%20goals%20and%20climate%20change%20reduction.pdf

Our Climate, Our Future: Nova Scotia’s Climate Change Plan for Clean Growth: https://climatechange.novascotia.ca/sites/default/files/uploads/ns-climate-change-plan.pdf

Weathering What’s Ahead: Climate Change Risk and Nova Scotia’s Well-being: https://climatechange.novascotia.ca/climate-impacts

News release – Funding for Sustainable Community Projects: https://news.novascotia.ca/en/2023/09/11/funding-sustainable-community-projects