GuelphToday received the following letter to the editor regarding the Mayor's Budget referencing the City's inability to afford meeting Guelph's 2030 emission target.
Dear editor
For years I’ve doubted whether municipalities have the finances to reduce fossil fuel emissions in line with the United Nation’s scientific targets.
That the current Mayor’s Budget effectively says we can’t afford to even half-way meet Guelph’s 2030 emission target is actually refreshing.
Guelph’s Race to Zero plan commits to cutting nearly all its corporate emissions by 2050 and expects the same for all public and private entities. But the plan doesn’t speak to the concrete actions needed, how much the actions will cost, nor where the money will come from.
From a project perspective this is a setup for failure.
Cost-saving emission reductions can happen within city budgets, but let’s not kid ourselves we have even close to the money and conditions needed to get to net zero.
There’s no way in five years I’ll look around Guelph and see homes, industries, and businesses using heat pumps and driving electric vehicles to the tune of a 63 per cent emissions reduction compared to 2018. I certainly can’t afford a $40,000 electric car.
We’re losing.
Instead, what Guelph needs is an immediate, war-scale (but peaceful) effort from the federal government such as the one Seth Klein describes in his book A Good War: Mobilizing Canada for the Climate Emergency.
Just like Canada punched above its weight building tanks in World War II, Canadians can do it for cutting emissions.
This effort would see new crown corporations producing heat pumps, electrified transportation, deep retrofits, and healthy electric infrastructure on-mass.
Not only will it make a dent in global emissions but it will create an economy of scale that cuts costs, will create tons of net new jobs, will give us better energy security, and will make Canada more competitive globally. It will also inspire other countries to do the same.
Where will the money come from?
Partly through a Climate Aligned Finance Act that if enacted would align federal and big bank investments with meeting emission reduction targets.
The City of Guelph would have much better odds racing to zero if this happened.
Sam Stevenson
Guelph
