City greenhouse gas emissions on the rise
Following a brief fall in the city’s greenhouse gas emissions during the first pandemic surge in 2020, emissions resumed their rise despite a promise to cut them by 55% by 2030.
This is not going to happen.
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Kate
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MarcG 10:07 on 2023-10-23 Permalink
Mission accomplished
Nicholas 10:44 on 2023-10-23 Permalink
It’s not going to happen, but it could. There are lots of subsidies available for home energy efficiency upgrades, but there could be more (and some are only for owner-occupied homes), and there could be extra loans for low-income residents. Landlords also don’t have an incentive to upgrade when the tenants are paying for heating; we need lots more heat pumps! I won’t get into public transit or cycling (the STM needs to get its bus service back on track), but we’ve had hugely varying signals from the province. On the stick side, we could tax larger vehicles more (I’m seeing some of that at the borough level), and tax energy prices more, and then refund all that money to residents in a progressive way, which would encourage retrofitting, smaller vehicles, less driving, etc. The city can do some of these things, but it’s mostly a provincial or federal thing, which is why our emissions have basically tracked the national trends.
Ian 11:47 on 2023-10-23 Permalink
Enforce the no-idling laws would go a long way. A lot of the delivery trucks are real oil-burners, too.
Kate 21:23 on 2023-10-23 Permalink
Walking around residential streets in the afternoon it’s striking how many of the passing vehicles are Amazon or other delivery trucks.
Orr 15:36 on 2023-10-26 Permalink
Even on quiet country roads in the middle of nowhere nowadays half the afternoon traffic is delivery trucks. It’s a revolution to rural people being able to easily get the same products as city folk.