Low Carbon Economy Fund

The Low Carbon Economy Fund (LCEF) is an important part of Canada’s clean growth and climate action plan, the Pan-Canadian Framework. The LCEF leverages investments in projects that generate clean growth, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and help meet or exceed Canada's Paris Agreement commitments.

Over the coming years, the Fund will provide financial support to projects that help to reduce carbon pollution, while also helping to:

• Create jobs for Canadians
• Deliver clean, sustained growth
• Support innovation
• Reduce energy bills

The LCEF is being delivered in two parts:

1. Low Carbon Economy Leadership Fund

• The Leadership Fund is providing up to $1.4 billion to provinces and territories to leverage investments in projects and programs that will generate clean growth and reduce greenhouse gas emissions to support the Pan-Canadian Framework.

2. Low Carbon Economy Challenge

• The Low Carbon Economy Challenge will provide over $500 million in funding to support projects that will leverage ingenuity across the country to reduce emissions and generate clean growth.
• The Challenge is being delivered through two streams.
• Through the Champions stream, Environment and Climate Change Canada accepted applications from a wider group of applicants seeking federal support for projects to help reduce emissions, create jobs, and promote clean growth. We will be making funding announcements concerning the Champions stream by the end of 2018.
• The Partnerships stream will launch later in 2018-19 and will fund the same types of projects as the Champions stream; however, this stream is designed to provide targeted support to smaller applicants, including small businesses, non-profits, smaller municipalities and towns and Indigenous communities.

Since the launch of the Low Carbon Economy Fund in June 2017, Canada has funding agreements in place with 9 provinces and territories and has approved over 30 projects to support provincial and territorial priorities. These projects include:

• $12 million to support residential and commercial building retrofits in British Columbia
• $4 million for energy efficient heating technology in public housing in the Northwest Territories
• $56 million to help more Nova Scotians access existing energy efficiency programming 
• $25 million to residential energy efficiency programming in Alberta
• $262 million to support a series of programs in Quebec