> Click HERE to access the Perth County Climate Action Plan Survey now <
A new community engagement platform for climate planning was launched November 25, 2020 as the next phase of Perth county’s planning process to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Rebecca Garlick, the Perth County Climate Change Coordinator, partnered with Ethelo E-Democracy Solutions in developing the platform based on results of her consultations with stakeholders. It invites anonymous public input into ways to reduce emissions in the Perth municipalities, including the City of Stratford.
The platform will close December 23, 2020.
Ethelo E-Democracy is a Canadian company that has worked closely with the federal government and other municipalities to offer this platform as a way to engage public input into climate action solutions.
With this new online platform for Perth County, the public can indicate levels of support for actions to be undertaken in the next 10 years to address the urgent need for climate action. Not only can participants choose which strategies they support, but also to what degree of implementation, such as a percentage of increase in electric vehicles or green buildings.
When asked about the urgency of the climate crisis, Garlick emphasizes the importance of working together as our actions are impacting one another at all times and that if we can come together to make a louder voice on making this a bigger priority, not only with local but provincial and federal governments, then we are actually going to see true changes.
“It’s going to take a lot of work and a lot of people to push this forward. If we don’t do anything, we’ll continue to see those negative impacts. We have to think locally and globally, all of our local actions impact our global population, and vice versa.”
One of the questions in the Perth County Climate Action Plan Survey
On the public engagement platform, the minimum percentage of emissions reduction starts at 10%, but as the background section indicates, this is not the goal. It is a minimum level to match our provincial target. Neither 10% emissions reduction nor 100% are realistic targets for 2030: 10% would not be an adequate target given the urgency of climate change and 100% is not achievable.
Said Garlick: “The 10% is the bare minimum number and I would like the public to showcase if they are willing to put in that extra work by voting for a higher target rather than us reaching that bare minimum of a 10% target. The max that you could vote for is a 45 to 50 % reduction; that is very, very ambitious but not impossible though a lot of work. That is the highest I would say that we could do in the next 10 years.”
The introduction to the survey notes that the IPCC (the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) “has stressed that we need to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions by 45%” by 2030 in order for us to continue to have a stable climate.
The survey platform allows people to indicate their priorities in the county as well as in their own municipalities. It can be completed as a guest in one sitting or, if you sign in, you can return to it and complete it, see how results are going, or edit your responses.
The climate plan online engagement platform includes photos from around Perth County
Please participate in the survey! Climate Momentum challenges you to vote for choices that get our community to a 30-45% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030.
> Click HERE to access the Perth County Climate Action Plan Survey now <
“It is really important that municipalities across Canada are taking on this kind of action because realistically the provinces and the federal government will never reach those targets that they eventually set without the help of municipalities.” ~ Rebecca Garlick, Perth County Climate Change Coordinator
The selection of options on the survey is not a wish list. Instead it is a thought-provoking approach to a complex issue, asking you to make trade offs so that your choices are realistic. You receive feedback as to the difficulty of implementation for each choice you make. The platform also provides background on the urgency of the climate crisis, as well as details of action implementation, such as this section on heating homes:
“Retrofitting our homes is actually a reasonably easy way to cut our greenhouse gas emissions.
“The smallest fixes, like sealing, caulking and insulating your attic and/or basement (if unfinished) can be quite inexpensive and can make a big difference in the home’s energy efficiency – saving as much as 25% in GHG emissions and on your home heating bill.
“Buying a new electric hot water heater and getting rid of the old gas one is another way to save big on emissions. Approximately 20% of home energy emissions are from heating hot water with gas. You can also reduce GHG emissions by using a solar hot water heater to preheat your water, either with your existing gas hot water heater or with an electric hot water heater. …”
The climate plan online engagement platform includes photos from around Perth County
The platform also gives you the latest updates, such as this section on electric vehicles: “Soon, the cost of an electric vehicle (EV) will be similar to a gas one. Electric vehicle range and style choices are ever-expanding and savings in gas and service each year are generally around $2000-$25000. With government incentives (federal incentive is $5000 as of 2020, but unfortunately the Ontario Provincial government has cancelled Ontario’s EV rebate program), EV vehicle sales are increasing and are much more affordable. Not only that, but we finally have enough used EV vehicle stock to make buying them more realistic for more people.”
Garlick hopes to have the climate action plans (one larger county plan with tailored sections for community priorities) completed by the end of January 2021 at the latest, and start the process of presenting it to the various municipal councils in February. If there are actions that don’t involve huge budgets, they can be started immediately following approval, otherwise some actions will wait until they are incorporated into 2021 budgets.
In Garlick’s research on Perth emissions, transportation has the biggest impact. Single cars on the road versus mass transit are a large part of that equation. One of the items in the platform is about PC Connect. When asked about this recent new intra-county and regional bus service, Garlick stated, “It’s really important that we are using it because it’s just a pilot at this point and if there is no local buy-in or usage, then it won’t continue past the pilot stage.”
The new inter-city transit option, PC Connect, could help to reduce emissions from personal vehicles if people choose to ride.
Garlick states, “It is really important that municipalities across Canada are taking on this kind of action because realistically the provinces and the federal government will never reach those targets that they eventually set without the help of municipalities.”
Garlick hopes to continue in her role once the two-year funded position with the county ends. If Stratford City Council accepts the Energy & Environment Advisory Committee’s recommendation to dedicate city staff time to climate plan implementation, then we might have a climate action team to realize our local climate goals. This would be a strong testament to the priority of addressing climate change comprehensively and locally.
Please participate in the survey! Climate Momentum challenges you to vote for choices that get our community to a 30-45% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030.
> Click HERE to access the Perth County Climate Action Plan Survey now <