City pollutants heading wrong way

An analysis of Hamilton’s greenhouse gas emissions says the numbers are going up for both the city’s own operations and the community as a whole. The study holds out hope that the city’s reduction targets for the climate forcing gases can still be achieved, but offers little in the way of recommendations on how to do that.

Demonstrations on October 24 in 178 countries and over 5200 locations, includingHamilton, suggest growing public worry about government inaction on climate change. City council’s commitment is to reduce local emissions by 10 percent by 2012 and 20 percent by 2020, measured against a 2005 baseline.

A similar approach and targets have been endorsed by the federal government, although that level of reduction would not even reach Canada’s 2012 commitments under the Kyoto protocol.

And despite the city’s modest commitments, the study by the Jacques Whitford Stantec Limited consultants reports that greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions inHamilton, measured in carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e), are heading in the wrong direction.

“Corporate GHG emissions were 139,401 tonnes in 2007, a 3.2% increase from the 2005 base year emissions of 135,038 tonnes,” the report notes. “A reduction of 17,849 tonnes (13.2%) C02e is required by 2012 to meet the City’s emissions reduction targets of 10%.”

The census year 2006 was chosen as the baseline for emissions across the city, but two years later those numbers were also rising.