When we think of climate change, we often think of international conferences and treaties that get a bunch of world leaders—or scientists—in the same room. They talk about what each country can do to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by a certain amount.
Agenda 21 was an international action plan for, among other things, sustainable development. That was developed in 1992. Since then, the Kyoto Protocol, adopted in 1997, brought 191 countries into the global effort to combat climate change. And the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change meets every year to work toward the same goals.
In 2009, the G8 set a goal in Italy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 80 per cent, compared to 1990 levels, by 2050.
Agreements like these frame climate change as an international issue that requires strong action at the federal level. But organizations like Ecology Ottawa say that municipalities also need to take climate change seriously if the problem is to be tackled in any serious fashion.
So what has the city of Ottawa has done so far to address climate change? What comes next? Jonathan Migneault explains.
Does Ottawa have a greenhouse gas reduction target?
Yes. In 2004, the city implemented its Air Quality and Climate Change Management Plan. The plan called for a 20 percent reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in the City of Ottawa by 2012, using 1990 as a baseline. The plan defined two kinds of emissions: corporate emissions, which are produced by the city’s own assets such as public transit and municipal buildings; and community emissions, which are produced by the people who live and work in Ottawa.
It’s almost 2012. Has the city met its greenhouse gas reduction target?
No one knows for sure. “It’s hard for us to determine how much progress has been made, because many years have gone by since there’s been an update on the emissions that are occurring at the corporate and community levels in the city of Ottawa,” says Trevor Haché, Ecology Ottawa’s policy coordinator.
Charles Hodgson, a concerned citizen who started the website climateottawa.ca, says it’s very likely the city’s target has been met at the much smaller corporate level, because it is easier to cut back on those emissions, but the target has probably not been achieved at the community level. We do know that from 1990 to 1998, the city reduced its corporate emissions by 12 percent. During the same period, community emissions increased by 43 percent, for a total of nine million tonnes of carbon dioxide.
Will the city set a new reduction target in 2012?
Choosing Our Future, a joint project between the City of Ottawa, the City of Gatineau and the National Capital Commission, hopes to “help Canada’s Capital Region to succeed in meeting the challenges of the 21st century by integrating sustainability, resiliency and liveability into all facets of the community.” The project is expected to propose new greenhouse gas reduction targets to Ottawa’s environment committee sometime in early 2012.
Capital councillor David Chernushenko sits on that committee, and says a new reduction target is not yet on the agenda for the committee’s December meeting (scheduled for Dec. 20). Both Haché and Hodgson say the city should at least aim to cut back emissions by 80 percent, compared to 1990 levels, as was recommended by the G8 in 2009.
What steps has the city taken so far to reduce greenhouse gas emissions?
Some of the city’s transportation infrastructure projects, such as recent investments in cycling infrastructure and the planned light-rail expansion, will help reduce the amount of cars on Ottawa’s roads. The city’s green bin program keeps organic waste out of landfills, where it can create methane upon decomposition. In the latest budget, the city proposed an “express lane” to approve environmentally friendly development. When it comes to future projects, Hodgson suggests the city mandate an environmental impact assessment on any proposal put forward to council. That proposal caught the ear of at least one city councillor.
“That’s a very interesting idea,” says Chernushenko. “I would be glad to bring that one forward.”
Is there sufficient leadership at City Hall to cut down on greenhouse gas emissions? Which city is doing it right?
“I wouldn’t describe my current colleagues [in council] as being overly concerned about climate change,” says Chernushenko. Vancouver is often held up as the model to follow in Canada. In 2009, Mayor Gregor Robertson set a goal for Vancouver to become the world’s greenest city by 2020, and had staff put forward a detailed report to meet that goal. Among many proposals, the city says it wants to meet the G8’s 80 percent greenhouse gas reduction target by 2050 and have carbon neutral new buildings by 2030.
