Bans on fossil fuel heating in new homes gain steam as world aims for net-zero emissions

Vancouver and Quebec recently banned certain kinds of fossil fuel-based heating in new home construction. Similar — and, in some cases more extensive — bans are happening around the world, from Norway to New York City. The goal? To cut CO2 emissions from buildings by replacing fossil fuel burning with electric heating. But are such bans necessary? And what impact will they have on people who live in those cities? Here's a closer look.

At least two jurisdictions have implemented recent restrictions on fossil fuel heating:

It's happening now because of attempts to: 

Reaching net-zero emissions by 2050 is a key goal of the Paris Agreement on climate change. Canada itself has also committed to reaching net-zero emissions by 2050.

During the recent United Nations COP26 climate summit in Glasgow, Canada and more than 80 other countries signed a Global Methane Pledge to cut emissions of methane — a greenhouse gas far more potent than carbon dioxide — by at least 30 per cent below 2020 levels by 2030.

In 2019, buildings were the third largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in Canada, after oil and gas and transport.

Space and water heating represent about 85 per cent of residential greenhouse gas emissions and 68 per cent of commercial emissions.

A 2021 report from the Canadian Institute for Climate Choices on different ways to get Canada to net zero said its modelling consistently shows "electrification of heating as a necessary part of the transition to net zero in Canada's building sector."

It's a strategy endorsed by the International Energy Agency (IEA), an intergovernmental organization affiliated with the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development that's focused on secure and sustainable energy.

The IEA recommended in May that bans on new fossil fuel boilers need to start being introduced globally in 2025 and that most old buildings and all new ones must comply with zero-carbon-ready building energy codes. That's because the lifetime of heating equipment can be a couple of decades.

Methane is emitted in the production of all fossil fuels, including coal and heavy oil, even if it isn't collected for use in the process.

It's also the main component — 95 per cent — of natural gas, the source of 52 per cent of the energy used to heat Canadian homes in 2018.

Chris Bataille is an associate researcher with the Institute for Sustainable Development and International Relations (IDDRI), a think-tank based in Paris, and an adjunct professor at Simon University in British Columbia who researches decarbonization of the economy.

Bataille said the entire system is leaky right from the production wells to consumers' stoves and furnaces. Eliminating methane from people's homes would reduce leaks throughout the system.