Ambitious London, Ont., climate action plan would require 'unprecedented' effort from citizens

City of London bureaucrats unveiled a sweeping climate emergency action plan to the city's media Wednesday that pledges to all but eliminate greenhouse gas emissions in the city by the year 2050.

The 30-year plan gives city council recommendations on how the community can bring itself in line with the worldwide effort to reduce green house gas emissions in order to hold global temperatures below two degrees above pre-industrial levels. 

The document envisions a future where exhaust-belching vehicles and oil burning furnaces would eventually be phased out, while homes and businesses would be retrofitted to withstand extreme weather events and more of the city's electricity would come from carbon-free sources produced locally.

Many of the undertakings are large and will take decades to complete, but probably the largest effort, according to city officials, will be getting the community to buy into and follow through with the plan. 

Londoners will have to reduce their individual carbon footprints from an average of 6.6 tonnes per person to an average of 3.5 tonnes per person by the year 2030, something that the plan said would require an "unprecedented" level of effort from citizens and "significant changes in how we live, work, commute, play and build." 

"We have been working on this for literally decades, but it's to align individuals, companies, community groups, business associations, First Nations, for everyone to begin to think how we can move together and that is the key piece in the work plans," said Jay Stanford, the city's director of environment and solid waste. 

"It's going to help us row in a similar direction and also avoid duplication." 

Stanford said the hope is to get community buy-in by focusing on the business opportunities that come with a greener economy, including new jobs, new technology and the business and research opportunities that come with them. 

Still, the change is not without costs, according to Stanford, who said some jobs would be phased out and was unable to put a financial price tag on the plan because, he said, the end result is too far out. 

"It's a very tough question to answer unfortunately," he told reporters. "That information is not available just yet."

Stanford said city has already started incorporating climate change actions and discussions into existing projects and has a number of "shovel ready" environmental projects waiting in the wings that have yet to attract federal and provincial grants, which he noted are instrumental in making the plan happen. 

"We can't rely on the wealth of funding that's going to be needed for the future from the local tax base," he said.  

Among the changes required of London families are changes to the way individuals live, including phasing out the 300 to 400 homes in the city that still rely on oil burning furnaces and making people less car dependent, the emissions of which, city officials estimate, count for nearly half of all air pollution in the city. 

"We know cars are here to stay. Our goal is to push them into electric mode," Stanford said, noting the city's recently passed mobility master plan aims to change the way people commute in the city over next decade.