Kevin Gill / CC
As the impacts of climate change become more and more visible, Saint John is taking action.
Monday night’s council meeting saw the adoption of the city’s first corporate greenhouse gas and energy action plan, as well as a broader community plan.
Both plans include specific targets for greenhouse gas emissions, as well as long term targets that would see the city be carbon neutral by 2040.
Mayor Don Darling says it felt like “a historic night” after the motion, including the signing of a climate change declaration, passed unanimously.
Action plan and declaration passed unanimously. Now the work begins, says @dondarlingSJ “We want more than a motion, we want action.”https://t.co/WnDbG1Wtwi
— Danielle McCreadie (@danimccreadie) May 6, 2019
The corporate action plan will aim to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 30 per cent (from a 2015 baseline) by the year 2025.
In the community at large, there will be a target reduction of 9 per cent by 2025, and 18 per cent by 2035.
Samir Yaminne, Manager of Energy and Assets for the City of Saint John, says the biggest impacts and changes will be to the city’s fleet and transportation. They’ve recently introduced a new “no idling policy,” and will be looking at purchasing electric vehicles.
Yaminne points out that Saint John was an early adopter of a Municipal Efficiency Energy Program, which saw the installation of a number of efficient and sustainable products in 152 municipal buildings in 2009.
The project reduced the City’s energy costs by $1.4 million in 2009 and cut 7,000 tonnes of carbon emissions.
Despite that, Yaminne thinks it’s time to dig a little deeper.
“In order for us to meet the target we need to go beyond low-hanging fruit, beyond energy efficiency, changing the light, beyond sinks. We need to move into more renewable sources if we can, more heat recovery sources.”
Councillor Greg Norton says the city has implemented a number of green initiatives, such as Saint John Energy’s wind farm, and street lamps with LED light bulbs.
“The City of Saint John I think maybe had this definition…we were a dirty, industrial, gritty city. I think the narrative’s changed, that we’re green and we’re leading the way now,” he said during the meeting.
Councillor Gary Sullivan echoes Yaminne, and says “going green” can actually save cities money in the long run.
“There are a lot of myths out there that combating climate change costs money and it’s not economically feasible to do so, when really, the City of Saint John started combating our affects on climate change because we were saving money,” he said.
The city will also be looking at opportunities for federal and provincial funding to support climate change efforts, such as extreme weather mitigation for critical infrastructure like roads, berms, and water treatment plants.
Sullivan adds that he likes to refer to the issue as a “climate crisis.”
He says the language is important, citing a recent tweet from youth activist Greta Thunburg, where she asks people to address the urgency.
It’s 2019. Can we all now please stop saying “climate change” and instead call it what it is: climate breakdown, climate crisis, climate emergency, ecological breakdown, ecological crisis and ecological emergency?#ClimateBreakdown #EcologicalBreakdown
— Greta Thunberg (@GretaThunberg) May 4, 2019
“Whatever we call it, I’m glad that it is now an underlying value of the City of Saint John,” he said.
