Several years ago, Vancouver decided to set a goal; the city
would completely eliminate use of fossil fuels. Other major cities, including
Stockholm and Copenhagen soon followed suit. Now the question is exactly how
and when the city will be able to meet its goal.
While already achieving about 98% renewable electricity, the
city wants to eliminate every use of fossil fuels within the city, including
cars and public transportation. “Vehicles will be a major challenge—converting to
electric vehicles and other greenhouse gas-free forms of mobility will likely
be the greatest challenge,” says Sadhu Johnston, Vancouver’s deputy city
manager.
“The city is starting to build new infrastructure like
separated bike lanes, dense neighborhoods next to transit stations, and EV charging
at 20% of new parking spaces.” (Peters).
Vancouver will have a complete plan and outline in
preparations for the UN Climate Change Conference later this year. While the
city is perfecting its plans, it is also working toward a goal of reducing
greenhouse gas emissions by 80% by 2050, as a member of a new group of cities
called the Carbon Neutral Cities Alliance, “which is a new collaboration of international
cities committed to achieving aggressive long-term carbon reduction goals.”(USDN).
(A majority of these cities are actually located in the US including; Boston,
Boulder, Minneapolis, New York, Portland, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington
D.C.)
Making aggressive changes within the community you live in
is bound to bring around various positive changes regarding the environment.
Being that the CNCA was formally launched in March of this year, hopefully we will
continue to see other large, impactful cities around the world joining in on
their efforts to better our planet.
For more information about the Carbon Neutral Cities
Alliance:
Go Canada! We seriously need someone to set the example and prove that radical change like this can and will work! That's really exciting. I had no idea that even some cities in the U.S. had this same goal. I guess I just haven't heard anything about the initiatives they are taking but I hope that they come up with something good! -Sophia
ReplyDeleteI have to agree with sophia, and say hip hip hooray to Canada! I love this. These are the stories that need to be shared and circulating to boost our social movements!
ReplyDeleteThis really sets a model for a lot of cities! If a place as large as Vancouver could do it, a lot of places could really implement some goals (hint hint Manhattan.)
ReplyDeleteThis is a really interesting idea. I wonder how they are going to achieve it and who came up with it in the first place. Very well written and I'm excited to see if it will be successful.
ReplyDeleteI find it amazing that Vancouver has been able to cut its emissions and switch over to renewable energy on such a large scale. This was obviously one case where setting an ambitious goal has paid off. It seems to me that setting ambitious goals like this may be the best approach to problems such as climate change; a lot more cities doing what Vancouver has done, even if they do not technically meet their goals, would make a lot of headway in reducing our collective carbon footprint.
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