The Need for Regional Climate Policies and Programs
“None of the municipalities in the GTHA act independently. We operate as a region, and our climate policies and programs must reflect that.” — Carbon Emissions Inventory for the GTHA 2019 Edition, The Atmospheric Fund
This week, we focused on regional governments, which we defined as “a federation of local (lower-tier) municipalities that provides regional services across local boundaries.” There are six regional governments in Ontario and our class had the privilege of visiting one of them: York Region, an upper-tier municipal government that provides common programs and services to residents and businesses in nine cities and towns.
The class also had a focus on climate change. When reading one of the required readings for the class this week: The Atmospheric Fund’s Carbon Emissions Inventory for the GTHA: 2019 report, I felt a sense of déjà vu.
The Atmospheric Fund’s Carbon Emissions Inventory for the GTHA 2019 report highlights that each region emits emissions differently. Because the population of each municipality and region varies, per capita emissions also vary among the municipalities and regions. For example, in the Figures below (which are taken from the above-mentioned report), you can see that when you look at carbon emissions by municipality and by sector for 2017, Toronto has the most carbon emissions. But when you look at per capita carbon emissions by municipality and by sector for 2017, Hamilton tops the list as the region with the most per capita carbon emissions.
The report also goes into further detail in terms of regional profiles by pointing out which sector in each region emits the most emissions. For example, Toronto had lower transportation emissions at the time of the report whereas York’s transportation emissions, on the other hand, were among the GTHA’s highest.
This reminded me of when I was doing research for my “Governance and Institutions” class last year which looked at how Canada plans to fulfill the Paris Agreement in terms of reducing industrial emissions. More specifically, reading the Atmospheric Fund’s Carbon Emissions Inventory 2019 report reminded me of the federal government’s approach to tackling climate change. For example, in October 2018, the federal government published a benchmark that would make sure carbon pricing would apply to a variety of emission sources by 2018. In accordance with the Pan-Canadian Framework — Canada’s plan to address climate change while growing the economy — the benchmark gave provinces and territories two years to implement their own carbon polluting pricing systems if they didn’t want to be a part of the federal pricing system. This benchmark also committed to the implementation of a federal carbon pricing backstop system, which would apply to regions that did not have a pricing system in place by 2018 that aligned with the benchmark.
Because provinces don’t emit emissions the same way and because they have their own preferences when it comes to tackling climate change, having a benchmark that enabled provinces and territories to implement their own carbon polluting pricing system was important. The Atmospheric Fund’s Carbon Emissions Inventory for the GTHA 2019 report emphasizes the same thing and highlights why it’s important to have regional climate policies and programs — each region emits emissions differently and climate policies and programs need to reflect that. The quote above puts it perfectly: “None of the municipalities in the GTHA act independently. We operate as a region, and our climate policies and programs must reflect that” (The Atmospheric Fund, 2019). However, this begs the question: although regional climate policies and programs are needed to address the different challenges each region faces, will regional governments be able to succeed in adapting/mitigating to climate change with the limited resources they have?
The Atmospheric Fund’s Carbon Emissions Inventory for the GTHA: 2019 report can be found here.
