Meeting the climate change challenge: a scan of greenhouse gas emissions in BC communities

Abstract

The Canadian province of British Columbia (BC) is taking significant steps towards climate change mitigation, including a carbon tax on fossil fuels and legislation that mandates greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions within public sector organisations and GHG reduction targets for municipalities. This paper carries out a preliminary scan of the GHG emissions of BC communities using the provincially mandated Community Energy and Emissions Inventory reports. We map trends in energy consumption and emissions per capita while uncovering correlations between these variables and land-use planning, geographic, and demographic variables. These data have shown that: (1) energy consumption in BC is an adequate proxy for GHG emissions; (2) transportation, more than buildings, is a strong driver of overall GHG emissions; (3) building emissions are not likely to be strongly influenced by dwelling type, but density of buildings is crucial; (4) geographic location influences emissions; and (5) population size and age do not appear to influence per capita emissions. These findings are particularly important as they suggest that the potentially intransigent factors of income and population size need not be barriers to achieving significant GHG reductions. The policy onus thus falls squarely on transportation planning, land-use, energy conservation, and fuel switching. This in turn highlights the importance of deeper underlying sociocultural and political preferences, which shape the behaviours that have a strong bearing on emissions profiles.

Keywords:

• climate change
• greenhouse gas emissions
• communities
• transitions

Notes

1. These data can be downloaded here: http://mc3.royalroads.ca/sites/default/files/webfiles/CURA_communityprofiles.xls.

2. For more information on these District Energy systems, see findings gathered by ‘Meeting the Climate Change Challenge’ (2011).

3. The number of kilometres travelled by each vehicle in a municipality can be ascertained using a variety of measures, including odometer readings, traffic counts, surveys, and transportation models.