Youth-led plan plots course to get Hamilton’s carbon emissions to ‘actual zero’ | 24CA News

The authors of a youth-led plan to cut back Hamilton’s dependence on fossil fuels are calling on metropolis corridor to wash up 122 deserted oil and pure gasoline nicely websites within the municipality, create incentives for constructing low-emission houses and improve taxes on pipelines. 

The measures are amongst a slate of different modifications the group is proposing, designed to convey town’s emissions all the way down to zero.

Environment Hamilton (EH) launched the Community Fossil Free Plan, written by Adan Amer, 23, and Adeola Egbeyemi, 22, on March 24. The venture began as a collaboration between local weather activists attending McMaster University and the Ward 3 workplace, and was later taken on by EH.

Amer and Egbeyemi say the doc builds on the local weather adaptation and mitigation plans Hamilton council authorized final 12 months, however places extra concentrate on the significance of eliminating carbon emissions and fossil gas use.

City plans do not go far sufficient, the authors say, and theirs might assist set a transparent path towards a “fossil free future” – a step past net-zero emissions, which permits for continued emissions if they’re offset by cuts elsewhere.

Egbeyemi, a venture assistant at EH, places it this manner: whereas Hamilton’s local weather mitigation plan consists of particulars on how you can get to web zero, “We hope for ours to add onto that, and go further… to actual zero.

“I believe we might get loads of assist from the neighborhood on this,” she added, in a phone interview with CBC Hamilton.

Building code and tax changes needed, says report

The report focuses on several “fossil free transformation” areas.

Fossil fuel extraction: The report says there are 257 oil or natural gas wells within the area. Nearly 50 of those are active, all located in Glanbrook. The report says all well locations should be tracked and those not in use should be remediated.

Buildings: Residential and commercial buildings account for 14 per cent of Hamilton’s greenhouse gas emissions, says the report. It proposes rapid expansion of electric heat sources such as heat pumps and geothermal energy. It also supports the development of green building standards, a project already underway in Hamilton, and says the city should lobby the province to update the Ontario Building Code to enshrine such standards.

Sustainable cooling: The average temperature in Hamilton increased 2 C between 1981 and 2010, and is likely to continue to rise. Many rental buildings are without cooling, which poses a health risk to tenants, but an environmental risk if they were to be cooled with fossil-fuel energy. The report proposes a maximum heat bylaw for rentals, and a program to support renewable retrofits.

Green bonds: The report suggests Hamilton follow other jurisdictions such as Ottawa in using bonds as a way to raise money for climate-related projects while providing stable interest and low risk to investors. The report also suggests developing a municipal carbon budget, which would measure and reduce annually the amount of emissions Hamilton produces, and help ensure new capital projects don’t add undue emissions.

Pipelines: The report’s authors urge council to increase taxes on pipelines that run through city property – a measure already being studied by city staff, thanks to their advocacy. Currently, pipelines have one of the lowest tax rates among the different types of assets the city taxes. The report would like this raised to be equivalent with heavy industry, and would also like pipeline information to be made publicly available.

Plan acts as ‘fossil-fuel non-proliferation’ agreement, says group

While international climate talks have struggled to secure commitments to end the use of fossil fuels, the International Energy Agency and the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change have warned governments against investing in new fossil fuel projects if their intentions are to limit warming to safe levels and meet international targets. 

Those debates are happening here in Hamilton as well. McMaster University is currently building gas generators as a cost-savings tool; and ArcelorMittal Dofasco is hoping a new Enbridge pipeline will bring more natural gas to the steel plant to help it move away from coal. Both projects have seen resistance from those arguing against new fossil-fuel infrastructure.

The Community Fossil Free Plan’s authors say they’d like their report to form the basis of a binding agreement on “fossil-fuel non-proliferation” – essentially an agreement to stop expanding the use of such fuels. They’re leading a team that has been consulting with city staff to discuss the best ways to move forward on their proposals, and hope their collaborative process will mean a higher likelihood of success.

“We wish to be sure it is a strong doc the place everyone feels they’ve had a say,” said Amer.

“We’ve been facilitating a tremendous staff of scholars from McMaster who’ve been having these conversations [with city staff] concerning the feasibility of our plan, what may be carried out, if one thing is at the moment underway, or why hasn’t one thing been carried out.”

The pair plans to use what they learn to update the document later this spring.

‘It’s going to need the buy-in of everybody’

Ward 3 climate action community coordinator Kerry Le Clair, who has been working with the young people behind the project from the start, believes “all the things in that plan is eminently achievable,” as long as there is a groundswell of support from the community, and buy-in from city staff. 

She says a big part of the plan’s strength is how closely its authors have worked with city staffers, so it’s less likely to “fall flat.”

“I’ve seen it a thousand occasions: City employees comes again… months later… with a employees report, and their response is they cannot do it and there is a litany of the reason why it could possibly’t be carried out,” said Le Clair, who says she is the first climate staffer to work for a Hamilton councillor.

“Will they rise to the event [of moving Hamilton away from fossil fuels] with out neighborhood strain? I do not know.”

She praised the group behind the report, saying it’s the first fossil-free plan she’s aware of that was led by young people, and says it’s time for the rest of the city to get on board.

“Whatever Hamilton’s fossil-free future goes to appear like, it should want the buy-in of everyone.”