St. John’s takes further steps to go green
The City of St. John’s has taken another big step in an effort to go green.
In a unanimous decision at a committee of the whole meeting Wednesday, city councillors voted to recommend adapting the St. John’s corporate climate plan and approve the medium- and long-term targets to reduce corporate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
The final approval is expected to be made at council’s regular meeting on May 17.
The goal is for the city to reduce its corporate operations’ GHG emissions to 40 per cent of 2018 levels by 2030, a stretch target of 50 per cent by 2030 from 2018 emissions and net-zero emissions by 2050.
In introducing the motion, Coun. Ian Froude said the plan aligns with global objectives that are required for action on climate change, as stated by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which is overseen by the United Nations Foods and Agriculture Organization.
“These goals are possible, but require rapid, farreaching, unprecedented changes in all aspects of society. We’re a small city, but this is a required global collective effort … we’ll be bound to fail,” said Froude, adding the long-term costs and impacts will be enormous if action is not taken.
“It’s important that we all do our part, so, as a whole, it aggregates into the necessary change.”
The city’s corporate climate plan embeds energy and climate considerations into the operational expenditure decision-making of staff and council. The framework doesn’t prescribe how the city will achieve its GHG targets at the site level. Rather, it describes the strategies that will support staff and council to identify, prioritize and balance climate actions among other city priorities.
It aims to reduce energy intensity and improve energy efficiency, create a culture of energy conservation, increase staff energy management capacity and knowledge, switch and regenerate energy to reduce greenhouse gas intensity and demonstrate municipal leadership.
According to the plan’s report, the climate science from the IPCC’S Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5 degrees Celsius is clear — allowing global temperature rise to exceed 1.5 Celsius will disrupt global social, economic and ecological systems, with severe consequences for the most vulnerable populations. The report states that temperatures are likely to reach the 1.5-Celsius increase between 2030 and 2052 if GHG emissions continue to rise at current global rates.
Temperatures have increased about 0.8°C since 1942, with warming of sea surface temperatures, an increase of intensity and duration of some storms and a long-term sea level rise of about 1.9 mm/year since the 1940s. The report states that without action, temperatures will increase by 2.7 Celsius by the 2050s, leading to other significant changes in precipitation, winter conditions and sea level rise.
This would exacerbate existing risks for vulnerable residents, disrupt infrastructure systems and lead to economic impacts.
“The way I think about it, you have a bathtub that fits 142 units,” Froude said. “If we stay within those 142 units, we have a good shot at reducing the impacts on our city. But if we overflow that bathtub, the water is going to run into your living room and cause damage that you’re going to have to take care of and will lead to even greater costs.”
Froude said provincial and federal grants and funding, taking advantage of costsharing opportunities, will help the city achieve these goals.
Coun. Maggie Burton said she hopes the plan will lead to some concrete actions, and hopes staff take it seriously.
“Ultimately, our success as a city depends on everybody buying into the plan and working hard to make sure it comes forward,” Burton said.
The city declared a climate emergency in 2019. Since then, it has taken several actions on climate change, including establishing an environment and sustainability experts panel, completing a review of hazards climate change might present to the city and protecting all wetlands within the city’s watersheds.
The economic analysis is part of the Resilient St. John’s Climate Plan, which is still in the works. That plan is focused on addressing climate-change effects in the community and the transition to low-carbon energy.
“I think we’re in good shape,” Mayor Danny Breen said, noting the many buildings, including the new Mews Community Centre, that will be more environmentally sound.
“I’ve very pleased with the progress we’ve made and I look forward to continuing that progress as we move forward.”