This article presents the findings of a study that examined three municipalities in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia, Canada, in order to determine the nature of the socio-cultural and institutional barriers to action on climate change at the local level. The central goals of this paper are (1) to propose a simple typology of institutional and socio-cultural barriers to action by gathering insights from an inter-disciplinary set of literatures. (2) to explore the ways that these barriers influence the utilization of various forms of capacity to achieve greenhouse gas reduction and resiliency in three case study communities, and (3) to understand the dynamic interactions amongst, and relative importance of, these barriers at the local level. The evidence presented in this paper indicates that barriers are deeply interwoven phenomena, which may reinforce one another and create substantial inertia behind unsustainable patterns of municipal operations Nevertheless, the same factors that can inhibit action on climate change (such as an organizational culture of combativeness or mutual disrespect) can also facilitate it (as with a culture of collaboration or innovation). This article suggests that a deeper understanding of the ways in which barriers can be transformed into enablers of action is a critical next step in the evolution climate change policy design and implementation at the local level. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.