PLANNING & DEVELOPMENT REPORT: Community Climate Action Strategy – Public Engagement Summary and Greenhouse Gas Targets

TOWN OF VIEW ROYAL PLANNING & DEVELOPMENT REPORT

TO: Committee of the Whole FROM: Jeff Chow, Senior Planner DATE: December 7, 2021 MEETING DATE: December 14, 2021

Community Climate Action Strategy – Public Engagement Summary and Greenhouse Gas Targets

RECOMMENDATION:

THAT the Committee recommend to Council that Green House Gas Reduction targets be endorsed to reduce community Green House Gas emissions by:

1. 45% from 2007 levels by 2030
2. 100% from 2007 levels by 2050.

CHIEF ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICER’S COMMENTS:

I concur with the recommendation.

DIRECTOR OF DEVELOPMENT SERVICES’S COMMENTS:

I concur with the recommendation.

PURPOSE:

1. To provide a 'What We’ve Heard” summary from community engagement events
2. To seek Council direction on key policy decisions in advance of drafting the plan

BACKGROUND:

The purpose of the Community Climate Action Strategy (CCAS) is to:

1. Forecast community Green House Gas emissions (GHGe)
2. Set GHGe reduction targets
3. Develop an action plan to meet the targets while working towards carbon neutrality
4. Increase community awareness and encourage action by individuals to reduce community GHGe by such means as a community resource guide and by referencing the District of Saanich carbon calculator (revised November 2021).
5. Establish strategies for regular monitoring and progress reporting

Community GHGe are territorial emissions, i.e. those generated within the Town, with allocations made for air and marine travel. They do not include consumption-based emissions, i.e. emissions generated elsewhere in the production of food and other goods.

DISCUSSION:

1. Public engagement component

The public and stakeholder engagement to gather community input for plan preparation (see Figure 1) has concluded and is summarized in Attachment 1. There were two workshops and two community surveys.

Workshops Two online workshops were held in October. Early analysis indicates that the primary GHGe in the Town are buildings, transportation, and waste. These themes were reflected in the topics selected for deeper engagement in the second workshop.

Community Surveys Parallel to the workshops, two community surveys were also conducted in October and November. These were available on the Town’s website and were distributed through social media, the Town’s RSS feeds and via email to advisory committees.

The information from this input is being used to help determine priorities for the strategy. The first item to consider is the Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reduction Targets.

2. Greenhouse Gas Emissions Targets

Community Energy Association, the consultant for the CCAS, provides the following recommendations for setting a GHG reduction targets.

Recommended New View Royal Community Greenhouse Gas Reduction Target

• 45% reduction from 2007 by 2030
• 100% reduction from 2007 levels by 2050

Our Rationale The recommendations above are aligned with the necessary ambition and timeline for reaching the overarching goal of limiting global warming to 1.5C, as per the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report from October 2018.

Reaching the goal of carbon neutrality or a 100% reduction in emissions by 2030 is extremely ambitious and will most likely not be met by any jurisdiction in North America. Additionally, it would be difficult to achieve without the support of higher levels of government and without imposing significant cost on residents.

At present there are several critically supportive policy tools that are available from the federal and provincial governments which will help to meet the 2050 target. However, these policies will not be implemented in time to reach an ambitious 2030 target.

These policies include:

Government of Canada

• A rising price on carbon pollution

Province of BC from CleanBC

• A stronger price on carbon pollution, aligned with or exceeding federal requirements, with built in supports for people and businesses
• Increased clean fuel requirements and doubling the target for renewable fuels produced in B.C. to 1.3 billion litres by 2030
• An accelerated zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) law (26% of new light-duty vehicles by 2026, 90% by 2030, 100% by 2035)
• New ZEV targets for medium- and heavy-duty vehicles aligned with California Complete B.C.’s Electric Highway by 2024 and a target of the province having 10,000 public EV charging stations by 2030
• Actions to support mode-shift towards active transportation and public transit
• A cap on emissions for natural gas utilities with a variety of pathways to achieve it
• New requirements for all new buildings to be zero carbon and new space and water heating equipment to be highest efficiency by 2030
• A 100% Clean Electricity Delivery Standard for the BC Hydro grid

Other Government and Regional Targets

Table 1. Other Levels of Government*

(*Staff note: See Table 2 for CRD municipalities)

Resident Support for Bold Action

Residents who completed the second community survey were supportive of the recommended targets with the bulk of respondents supporting even more ambitious action.

Staff Comment

A comparison of community GHG reduction targets for other jurisdictions within the Capital region is summarized in Table 2. The proposed targets for 2030 and 2050 are still ambitious and would place the Town among the leaders within the region.

Table 2. Regional Targets

* From 2007 GHGe levels

The latest community GHGe estimate for the Town (Attachment 2) is a 5.5% reduction in 2018 from 2007 levels. If the targets are endorsed by Council, an action plan would be developed as part of the CCAS to build on the 2018 figure to achieve the targets. The action plan is expected to include estimated costs for implementation so that the actions and endorsed targets may be fine-tuned if necessary. It is anticipated the final targets would be formalized in the new Official Community Plan and through an amendment to the Climate Action Emergency declaration.

Alternatives to the consultant’s recommendation include the following: