It has been five years since the City of Ottawa released any
greenhouse gas emissions
reports and environment groups are left wondering just how much fossil fuels the city burns.
Usually, the city releases public reports tracking the amount of greenhouse gas emissions produced within Ottawa, but the last report was released for the 2020 emissions inventory findings.
That 2020 report said community emissions had decreased 15 per cent since 2012, but a further reduction of five to six per cent would be needed to meet
Ottawa’s climate targets
in the next five to 10 years.
Angela Keller-Herzog, executive director of the local environmental activist group CAFES Ottawa, says the city has a commitment to make those reports to the public.
“It’s really important for countries and cities to be tracking their greenhouse gas emissions,” she said. “If we’re going to do something about the problem, we need to figure out where our emissions are coming from.
“Unfortunately, in the last few years, the city has been somewhat neglectful.”
Keller-Herzog says it’s important for residents to
know if Ottawa’s climate change master plan is working
and whether their investments are “paying off or falling behind.”
CAFES Ottawa
launched a petition
calling on the city to release emissions inventory reports from 2021 to 2024, garnering more than 375 signatures as of Wednesday evening.
Keller-Herzog says she and other members “basically just lost patience” after years of waiting for the city to release the emissions reports.
“What gets measured gets managed,” she said. “If we have systematic measurement of this process of pollution, then that will allow us to figure out where to apply effort to try to reduce (those numbers).”
Keller-Herzog says she’s most concerned about Ottawa’s emissions going up, but she wouldn’t be spreading any “alarm” until she’s able to review the report. With the city
considering an incinerator
to handle residential waste, she argues this would only increase emissions and act as a “carbon bomb.”
The
Climate Change Master Plan
aims to “transition Ottawa into a clean, renewable and resilient city” and to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions completely by 2050. The last progress report was released in April 2023.
In a July 29 email statement to the Ottawa Citizen, Capital ward Coun. Shawn Menard, who is chair of the city’s Environment and Climate Change committee, said he would also like to see the updates of the emissions figures and has been asking city staff to provide them.
“I understand they went back to ensure consistency with how they collected the data and that these should be released soon,” Menard said. “I have been steadfast in requesting this information.”
Coun. Marty Carr, who represents Alta Vista ward, said the reports would be tabled with the committee sometime this fall, ideally before budget discussions. She said the committee would be conducting a “high-level overview” of advancements on climate change-related projects.
Carr, who is also vice-chair of the Environment and Climate Change committee, said the department responsible for climate change-related reports and initiatives had been reorganized after dealing with “temporary resources.”
Nichole Hoover-Bienasz, the city’s director of Climate Change and Resiliency, said the delay in releasing updated greenhouse gas inventories since 2021 was due to a “comprehensive third-party review of the 2020 data to ensure accuracy and alignment with best practices.
“Dillon Consulting Ltd. was engaged to review the methodology and calculate the 2021 and 2022 inventories,” she said in a July 30 email. “City staff are now finalizing the 2023 and 2024 inventories based on these recommendations.”
Hoover-Bienasz also said that Ottawa’s community emissions had been trending back to pre-pandemic levels due to “resumed in-person activities.” The 2020 emissions inventory report found that t
he COVID-19 pandemic significantly reduced emissions, with a 30-per-cent drop in gasoline use between 2019 and 2020.
“T
he city continues to advance work to address emissions through the implementation of Climate Change Master Plan, including key priorities such as the Energy Evolution Strategy and Climate Resiliency Strategy
,” she said.
An updated report of greenhouse gas emissions through 2024
will be shared with the Environment and Climate Change Committee and through the city’s communications channels, Hoover-Bienasz confirmed.
Carr said these reports would also be crucial for making budget and financial decisions from an “environmental point of view.
“That’ll be really important for us to be able to measure to see what’s actually happening because we obviously set a lot of targets that we’ve not been able to see if we’ve met at all,” Carr said. “We know of steps that the city has been in different initiatives that they put forward, but we haven’t been able to have staff see that, to be able to analyze the data and come to conclusions.
“It’s a key piece that is desperately needed.”
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