The city of Coquitlam has set a new target for reducing its own greenhouse gas emissions.
A goal approved by council on Monday would see city GHGs decrease by 40% from 2007 levels by 2025 — that’s the equivalent of taking 500 cars off the road for one year, according to a staff report.
The city has already made some gains in reducing its carbon footprint and is currently approximately 25% below 2007 levels, which missed a previous 30% reduction target by 2015.
Luisa Jones, the city’s energy manager, said there are opportunities for further decreases in city emissions and believes the 40% target is attainable.
“We have done this for 10 years and, as a city, we have learned,” she told The Tri-City News. “We know we have to look at the full portfolio.”
During the first eight years of the city’s emissions-reduction strategy, the focus was on improving energy efficiency at civic facilities. The introduction of LED lighting was one component, along with the installation of the City Centre Thermenex energy-sharing system for the four city buildings with the highest energy consumption: city hall, the Evergreen Cultural Centre, the Coquitlam RCMP detachment and City Centre Aquatic Complex.
The initiatives reduced the city’s greenhouse gas emissions from buildings by 40%, a number that Jones said can still be improved.
“There will always be opportunities in buildings,” she added. “The technology continues to evolve and it continues to be more accessible.”
But in order to achieve the new 40% target, Jones said staff will look at what kinds of reductions can be made with the city’s fleet of vehicles.
“Fleet has great opportunity that we haven’t tapped into just yet,” she said, adding that vehicles contribute nearly half of all of the city’s emissions.
Achieving the 40% reduction target will cost approximately $1.5 million but a staff report said the number was a high-level estimation that would need to be refined.
The document also noted that the energy savings the city has accomplished since 2007 have led to a reduction in energy costs of approximately $4 million.
OTHER REDUCTIONS
While Coquitlam is looking at ways of reducing its corporate carbon footprint, targets are also in place for city-wide GHG emission reductions.
Under the provincial government’s Bill 27 Green Communities initiative, Coquitlam set a target for reducing its city-wide carbon footprint to 15% below 2007 levels by 2031 and per capita emissions by 30% by 2021.
But Jones said getting the province to provide the necessary data to track the city’s progress has been challenging.
Currently, the most up-to-date numbers are from 2012 and show an overall reduction in emissions of 3% while the per-capita emissions have been reduced by 12% below the 2007 baseline.
The 2012 figures were only recently released — a four-year gap between the time the data was collected and given to the city. A similar issue occurred when 2010 data was released in 2014.
“It is very challenging,” Jones said during a council-in-committee meeting on Monday.
Several councillors took issue with the data problems, noting that if the province wants the city to make the reductions, it should do a better job of providing the data in a more timely fashion.
Others said the targets would be difficult to achieve given the city’s rapid population growth associated with Evergreen Extension development.
“It is going to be very difficult as we hit those maximum numbers to keep the GHG numbers low as we continue to grow,” said Coun. Craig Hodge, adding, “At some point, growth is going to exceed the ability to do personal reductions.”
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