What Is The Citizen Panel On Edmonton's Energy Transition Initiative?

Dr James Hansen’s argumentative essay, “A Solution to the Climate Problem,” discusses his premise that it is imperative for humankind to deal with carbon dioxide emissions, which he believes needs to be phased out by the mid-21st century. He begins with the current paradigm in government efforts to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and claims that so far it has been a lot of talk and action in the other direction. Dr Hansen argues that while governments pay lip service to agreements such as the Kyoto Accord, they are going full steam ahead with projects that will result in increased carbon dioxide emissions, such as going forth with coal-fired power plants, coal-to-liquids, hydraulic fracturing, and tar sands oil extraction. Dr Hansen believes

An urgent issue, climate change is undoubtedly a sweeping global dilemma of paramount importance. Though most people are aware of this fact, many either choose to ignore it, or acknowledge it, but take no action against it. Those who do choose to take action usually attempt to combat climate change by using the methods that are most commonly discussed: becoming more energy efficient, recycling, and reducing emissions through using more sustainable transportation. Though these actions are helpful, they are not the most efficient way to counter climate change.

The reason I chose this issue is because throughout this course, I’ve been very passionate about climate change and I really wanted my last project to take the same focus as well. Additionally, there are many reasonable policies like carbon taxes, which will truly help Canada become more environmentally sustainable. However, many citizens are still not convinced about the urgency of climate change and I’d like to change their minds.

We once lived in a world lush and plentiful where we enjoyed all the natural resources peacefully. However at the beginning of the industrial revolution more people moved to the cities therefore increasing their dependency load. Fastforward to today and the world has seen a drastic change in the loss of natural resources as well as a number of health related illnesses like asthma. This is mainly due to the effects from carbon pollution, greenhouse gases and global warming. Canada as a country is thought of as environmentally aware and progressive. Actually has many issues regarding this topic and if it is not taken care of it will affect the future of the nation. I care about this topic because it has to

When it comes to the government, when planning for peak oil and climate change they have to identify the expected and potential impacts so that recommendations can be tailored for maximum effect. Governments should not only look at developing public transit and other land-use and infrastructure changes that may be needed for reducing fossil-fuel use, but should also carefully evaluate large investments in roads, airports, and other infrastructure dependent on fossil fuels. At a minimum, governments need to consider scenarios with much higher fuel prices than exist today when running models to determine demand for various options.The lead government body (e.g, the city council) should establish benchmarks and continually monitor how peak oil and climate change are unfolding and affecting the community, to see what adjustments to the plan are warranted.

Climate change is a real issue that is currently impacting every single region of the world. The world is a very large place with many different regions. Every region in the world is experiencing unique effects of climate change but we are all experiencing some form of it, nonetheless. The global average temperature has risen 0.74 degrees celius over the past 100 years (Climate). We all contribute to the effects of climate change and we are all responsible for helping reverse it. I live in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada. Mississauga is Ontario’s third largest city and Canada’s sixth largest city, which is unique for a suburban residential area. With a population over 700,000 (and growing), Mississauga is a chief contributer to the climate change

Air pollution is a major threat to the atmosphere, causing damages to the environment by emitting harmful substance to human health. Alberta has become a vulnerable society that has resulted in an increase rate of illness caused by poor air quality from asthma to lung cancer. Although Alberta is one of Canada’s largest growing industries, Alberta produces the most greenhouse gas emissions, which has made Alberta to position as the worst air quality management in the Canadian Ambient Air Quality Standards (CAAQS) (Esrd.alberta.ca).

For the last two decades, the increased use of fossil energy caused the environmental problems. The evidence of global warming, like drying rivers, extinction of species, melting of glaciers, became more often around the planet. The climate change became a threat to healthy environment and prosperity of humanity and wildlife, and the world community started searching for solution to combat climate change. In 2008 British Columbia introduced carbon tax on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to reduce global warming. Starting from $10 per tonne of CO2, the price was increasing annually till it reached $30 per tonne in 2012. During that period British Columbia was reducing harmful emissions and improving economy comparing to the rest of Canada. However, since the price rise on carbon stopped in 2012, no improving changes in cutting emissions, economy, and overall quality of life have been noticed. In this essay I will persuade that British Columbia should continue gradually increase price on carbon tax to the level where it will significantly cut the use of dirty energy, provide enough investments into the green projects, and support low-income families.

Author Lawrence M. Ling is a Project Pull Mentor’s Assistant in the Policy and Government Affairs Team of the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission. He is an undergraduate student at the University of California: Los Angeles who majors in Political Science, and he strongly believes that CleanPowerSF is the best solution to the growing trend of global warming.

The Annapolis city government has aimed to reduce emissions by 75% by the year 2025 as well as achieve carbon neutrality by the year 2050 (Savidge 2010). In order to achieve these goals, the city government has committed to reducing energy usage by 10% in public facilities by 2017 and 15% by 2020 (Savidge 2010). The city government also plans to achieve 25% of their energy from renewable sources as well as providing greener and more energy efficient upgrades to public facilities and city transportation (Savidge 2010). The Annapolis community has aimed to reduce emissions by 50% by the year 2025 as well as achieve carbon neutrality by the year 2050 (Savidge 2010). The community has been and will continue to actively encourage locals to purchase green and renewable energy, use alternative forms of transportation, increase recycling and reduce trash production, and to preform energy efficiency upgrades (Savidge 2010). Such efficiency upgrades could take place in the form of financing home energy improvements, energy efficient mortgages, energy smart schools, or zero interest loans for energy conservation and “green energy projects (Roseland 2012).” Mark Roseland published a paper on sustainability “solutions for citizens and their governments” that outlines the benefits that simple energy efficient upgrades can achieve (Roseland 2012). He states examples where residents can save over $1000 each year on oil, gas, and electric bills while reducing their emissions through local

The City of Boynton Beach has adopted a combination mitigation and adaptation strategy. The city leaders recognized its influence of urban development on climate change and made a plan to help reduce their impact on future climate changes. “The plan is comprised of the three pillars that are necessary to achieving a sustainable future: environmental stewardship, economic growth, and social responsibility, all of which are interdependent and connected.” ("Go Green Boynton Beach!", 2015) The CAP is an implementation plan that will reduce greenhouse (GHG) emissions and energy consumption, while also constructing or renovating areas to

Ontario has its own creative and effective strategies to combat climate change. One of Ontario’s goal is a low-carbon future. To accomplish this the province started making carbon reductions in 1990 and are on track to reduce carbon emissions by 15% in 2020, 37 per cent in 2030 and 80 per cent in 2050 (Climate Change Action Plan, 2017). Ontario’s target of reducing emissions by 6% was met on schedule in 2014 (Climate Change Action Plan, 2017). One of the reasons this has been made possible is because of Ontario’s investment in carbon reduction. For example, in 2015 Ontario committed $325-million payment to Ontario’s Green Investment Fund to support programs that help households and businesses implement

In recent years, Canada’s lack of climate action at the federal level has damaged our international reputation. With the UN climate talks in Paris, Canada has an opportunity to step up and take meaningful climate action and be viewed as a climate leader on the

The Action Plan contains some excellent proposals, which is supposed to, eventually, reduce Ontario's emissions. For example, the ECO supports the Action Plan's proposed Investments In low-carbon transportation and in clean technology innovations. The proposed green bank (now called the Low Carbon Solutions Deployment Corporation) should help individuals and businesses to improve energy efficiency in buildings, and be a helpful intermediary between building owners/operators and energy efficiency service providers.

While the plan appears to be thorough and complete, this very characteristic may also prove to be a weakness. As sustainable technologies and even planning methodologies improve, a plan as cohesive as the current Portland Plan may leave little breathing room to accommodate the integration of future improvements without large investments and comprehensive re-planning. In addition, plans as comprehensive as this one is tend to leave less room for the creative expression, which adds diversity and charm to the cities neighborhoods. In terms of raw efficiency, the choice to make this plan a joint effort between the city government and the citizens themselves, though a noble cause, can cause each step to take much longer, and even the delay of the project in its entirety due to the volatility of entire populations. One final risk of the plan, is the risk associated with time. As any program needs money to continue on, people must continue to vote for the Portland Plan’s various programs over the years in order for them to maintain funding, so that they may continue bringing about the sustainable Portland as exists within the plan. The plan is to take place over 25-years, over the course of which any number of variables may change. The issue is things may change over the course of those 25-years, that could cause people to lose support for the plans various programs. Likewise, over