{"id":1685,"date":"2007-03-24T15:53:10","date_gmt":"2007-03-24T19:53:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacingtoronto.ca\/?p=1685"},"modified":"2013-01-21T14:52:10","modified_gmt":"2013-01-21T19:52:10","slug":"torontos-climate-plan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/03\/24\/torontos-climate-plan\/","title":{"rendered":"Toronto’s Climate Plan"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Friday, Toronto released Change is in the Air<\/a>, its proposed framework for action on climate change and clean air, and it is a thing of beauty (albeit more of a sketch at this point than a finished oeuvre).<\/p>\n

As someone who has been a semi-professional complainer about the lack of action on climate change in Toronto over the last 8 years, I had to resist the urge to start hugging people as it was announced.<\/p>\n

It not only follows the European Union in setting greenhouse gas reduction targets based on what scientists say is necessary to prevent dangerous climate change (Dalton McGuinty and Stephen Harper, take note), it also proposes a suite of measures that could conceivably get us there. As the Toronto Star points out<\/a>, there’s still a lot of work to do in fleshing it out, but I think they’ve set their sights high and anyone who loves this city (or planet) should get behind it, because that’s the only way it will ever get implemented. And besides, there’s still lots of room for your ideas, and the framework even builds in space for neighbourhood-based initiatives.<\/p>\n

So why is this plan different than, say, the 2000 Environmental Plan?<\/p>\n

First, you’ve got a mayor and a decent number of councillors who get it when it comes to the environment and want to see this happen (in spite of the many naysayers who invest their energy in coming up with reasons why this can’t be done). This is a very different political situation from the first mega-city Council.<\/p>\n

Second, this is a much more coherent package than the Environment Plan, which was all over the map and where most of the recommendations were ‘study this further and then decide what to do’.<\/p>\n

Thirdly, I think we can rally enough support (and commitment in their own lives) amongst the public to make this a reality. There’s a hunger for leadership and bold ideas on what to do, and I’m hoping people get behind this.<\/p>\n

And finally, not only will some of the measures raise funds for implementation (the plan calls for vehicle registration fees and\/or parking fees to pay for some of the measures), but if we can keep up the pressure on the federal and provincial governments to get serious about climate change, then they’re going to go looking frantically for someone who can sell them tonnes of greenhouse gas reductions. And if the City has a decent plan than will achieve real reductions ready to go, they can invite the ‘senior’ levels of government to sign on the bottom line.<\/p>\n

What kind of things are in the framework?<\/strong><\/p>\n