Nelson cuts emissions right at home
Kootenay city is not using controversial carbon offsets under fire by auditor general
The City of Nelson has quietly been reducing its greenhouse gas emissions without purchasing carbon offsets.
Municipalities fall outside the province’s carbon trading system, overseen by the Crown corporation Pacific Carbon Trust, through which hospital and universities must pay for their greenhouse gas emissions.
That gave Nelson more flexibility on how to reduce its carbon footprint after it signed onto the province’s voluntary Climate Action Charter, where municipalities agree to reduce the carbon footprint of their municipal government to zero.
While the program is not mandatory, signing onto the emission reduction program gives municipalities extra credit when they apply for provincial grants.
Many communities in the Kootenays have purchased carbon offsets to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, but Nelson did not take that route.
Instead, the city reduced the carbon footprint of municipal operations, including upgrading lights, thermostats and insulation to reduce energy use. The city is also moving to smaller vehicles and hybrids where possible.
Rather than purchasing offsets to push its carbon footprint lower, the city created a program about 18 months ago that allows residents to finance home energy- efficiency upgrades through low- interest loans floated by the city- owned utility, Nelson Hydro.
The city is in the midst of having Natural Resources Canada audit the homeowner greenhouse gas emission reductions and will apply those to offset the municipality’s carbon tally.
About 200 homeowners have already participated.
Nelson city manager Kevin Cormack said their approach was not necessarily a protest against the other provincial model of using offsets, but stressed they believe they’ll produce real energy and greenhouse gas reductions through their method.
“We think it’s a better use of those funds within our community,” Cormack said.
He noted that the homeowner energy retrofit program is also good for the local economy as it creates work for contractors in the city, and helps reduce the load on its hydro utility.
“We felt it was positive all around,” Cormack said.
In order to be eligible for the low- interest loan, homeowners must have an audit done that costs about $ 100, subsidized through the province.
The city has capped the loan program at $ 15,000.
Kindy Gosal, a Columbia Basin Trust director who is helping Kootenay communities reduce their carbon emissions, said that like Nelson, other Kootenay communities are looking to find ways to offset their greenhouse gas emissions through local projects that have local benefits.
The B. C. government’s carbon offset program was the subject of a scathing report by Auditor General John Doyle released on Wednesday.
The report concluded the government did not reach its goal of carbon neutrality in 2010, the year under examination, because the carbon offsets it purchased that year were not credible. Under the system, hospitals and universities had to buy offsets from the Pacific Carbon Trust, which used the money to finance greenhouse gas reduction projects in the private sector.
The B. C. government and the Pacific Carbon Trust have rejected the auditor general’s findings.
We think it’s a better use of those funds within our community.
KEVIN CORMACK
NELSON CITY MANAGER