Climate Strategy - Climate Change Mitigation One Pagers
On February 23, 2022, the Calgary Climate Hub wrote to City Council in preparation for updates to the Climate Strategy. Volunteers reviewed the current Climate Resilience Strategy and prepared a set of one pagers. These one pagers present our positions and recommendations for climate change mitigation in Calgary. Our aim is to see these recommendations included in the next revision of the Climate Strategy. These documents have been reviewed and approved by the Board of Calgary Climate Hub. We have also collaborated with other local non-partisan, non-profit organizations to develop the one pagers, including: Bike Calgary, Fair Fare, Recycling Council of Alberta, and Sustainable Calgary. The one pagers are broken into eight (8) topics:
- Cycling and E-Mobility
- Electricity
- Existing Buildings
- New Buildings
- Land Use
- Public Transit
- Zero Emission Vehicles
- Waste
We are thrilled to be in a city that has committed to net-zero by 2050 and believe our recommendations will firmly put Calgary on track to being a net-zero city as soon as possible. Climate is also a big, intersectional issue. We believe implementation of our recommendations will enhance mobility, inclusion, public health, economic resilience and sustainability while reducing the risks and economic impacts associated with climate change. As a large municipality, Calgary has the ability to act meaningfully to solve the climate and advocate to provincial and federal governments to act as well.
As citizens of Calgary, we are eager to see tangible, measurable actions on climate change mitigation. We will also be following up with one pagers for climate change adaptation.
Read summaries of our one-pagers below, and download the complete documents for background, sources, and more details. Get them all in one place here.
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Cycling and E-Mobility
Focus:
- Cycling and E-Mobility to be treated as viable alternatives to car ownership, with associated protected networks, as opposed to recreational activities well served by the current network
- Fund and expand Calgary’s 5A (Always Available for All Ages and Abilities) network
- Aim, and commit budget, to have a modal share for cycling and e-mobility of 10% by 2025
- Make cycling as or more convenient than driving, especially for trips under 5 km
- Providing true modal choice to all Calgarians in all areas of the city, enabling a diverse user base
Download our complete one-pager on Cycling and E-Mobility here.
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Electricity
Focus:
- Incorporate net-zero electricity by 2035 in the updated Climate Strategy, with associated implications
- Urge and support provincial and federal policy that supports the decarbonization of the electric grid
- Maximize the amount of carbon free electricity generated in Calgary, such as rooftop solar
- Include upstream methane emissions in electricity related GHG emissions
- Partner with Indigenous communities when building new infrastructure
Download our complete one-pager on Electricity here.
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Existing Buildings
Focus:
- Expand and fund financing options, such as the CEIP, to allow more net-zero retrofits
- Address split incentive problem for rental property retrofits
- Foster a workforce capable of retrofitting at scale to make all existing building net-zero ready
- Retrofit all municipal and municipal partner owned buildings to be net-zero ready
- Advocate for and adopt a net-zero building code
Download our complete one-pager on Existing Buildings here.
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Land Use
Focus:
- Increase walkability, vibrancy, and affordability
- Increase housing stock in inner city, both in current neighborhoods and established light industrial
- Green the city by restoring biodiversity, forestation, and restoration/protection of wetlands and greenspace
- Cooperate with developers to create sustainable communities that incorporate concepts of Net Zero, Circular Economy and Doughnut Economics
- Create a ‘level playing field’ between peripheral and infill development by assessing development value
- holistically
- Reduce the use of cars while improving safety and mobility for transit users, cyclists and pedestrians
- Actively engage Calgarians to increase awareness, appreciation, and participation with respect to the
- transformative goals for improving land use planning and development
- Establish a 15-minute city
Download our complete one-pager on Land Use here.
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New Buildings
Focus:
Develop policies for new buildings to achieve four simple imperatives to mitigate climate change:
1. Maximize operating energy efficiency
In order to switch to renewable energy sources, there is a need to increase operating efficiency.
- The international Passive House Standard, an open source, science based standard is the level of operating efficiency globally recognized as achievable and affordable in all climate zones.
- Performance benchmarking is required to deliver people and climate friendly buildings.
2. Meet operating energy requirements from 100% clean sources
3. Minimize embodied carbon
- The energy consumed and emissions generated as a result of construction, refurbishment and end of life must be absolutely minimized through the establishment of embodied carbon targets that are low enough to require significant innovation in building design and construction
- The City of Vancouver’s Climate Emergency Action Plan directs staff to develop such targets.
4. Do the above three things as rapidly as possible
Download our complete one-pager on New Buildings here.
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Public Transit
Focus:
- Increase transit ridership, target 17.5% modal share by 2025
- Improve shuttle service to C-Train stations and BRT hubs
- Ensure all transit vehicles are zero emission by 2030
- Provide transit that is accessible, affordable, convenient and connected
- Improve efficiency of transit routes
Download our complete one-pager on Public Transit here.
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Waste
Focus:
- Work toward a ‘zero organic waste’ target to eliminate all Scope 1 methane emissions from landfills
- To reduce Scope 3 emissions, create policy, and a plan with aggressive interim targets, to advance a Circular Economy. This will result in waste reduction that supports the goal of Zero Waste
- Further implementation of the reduce, re-use, repair, and recycle principles are basic to outcome attainment
Download our complete one-pager on Waste here.
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Zero-Emission Vehicles
Focus:
- Provide EV charging infrastructure to encourage adoption
- EV charging to be as (or more) ubiquitous and easy as gasoline fueling
- Ensure EV charging infrastructure takes advantage of green power sources
- Develop policies and targets for conversion of municipal fleets
- Track progress of fleet conversion and publish annually
- Advocate for and incentivize electric conversion of other city fleets
Download our complete one-pager on Zero-Emission Vehicles here.
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