Canada, like many other countries, has a 2030 Emissions Reduction Plan consisting of a roadmap for the Canadian economy to reduce emissions 40-45% below 2005 levels by 2030 We also have the Carbon Neutral Accountability Act, in force since 2021, which helps chart the course for achieving carbon neutrality by 2050. However, carbon neutral targets, policies and financial systems of Canada’s climate are still considered “highly insufficient” by the Climate Action Tracker. From 1990 to 2020, Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions have even increased by 13.1%.
In Canada, 81.65% of people live in a city (2021). In order to achieve carbon neutrality, we need to make drastic changes to how we build, how we move people and goods, and how we manage materials and waste.
The gap between local climate ambitions and the implementation of urban climate plans and mitigation measures remains considerable. Fostering local solutions requires additional funding, administrative capacity, research, and closer collaborations between different levels of government—locally, nationally, regionally, or globally—to drive broader systemic change. Often, local public funds fail at all to raise the capital needed to implement carbon neutral solutions in cities.
This is how the urban climate investment deficit is estimated at staggering sums. Additional resources can come from increased revenue sharing of direct revenues with regional and national governments, such as income and sales taxes, carbon pricing revenue sharing, increased transfers intergovernmental or new sources of revenue at the local government level, such as congestion charges.
It is becoming increasingly clear that legislative reform and pioneering legislation is an area in which cooperation between the different levels of government is essential. This collaboration will help cities introduce innovative urban climate policies, such as ultra-low emission zones and zero-carbon building standards, or make urban climate action plans as binding as possible.
What should Canada do now to lead the way in this area?
In order to achieve decarbonisation, significant investments in green infrastructure are needed. Canada needs major flagship projects to increase the production, transmission and conservation of renewable energy. We need to invest in public transit and affordable, energy-efficient housing through a large-scale modernization program. This will create jobs and retain the $34 billion that Canada spends each year importing liquid fossil fuels into the country.
City designs with density in mind are needed to facilitate active mobility such as walking, cycling and other micromobility options. In the concept of the “quarter-hour city”, the infrastructures are so close to the home that the automobile becomes unnecessary. To achieve such a transition and put an end to the dominance of the automobile, we must succeed in ensuring that 65 to 80% of users take public transport or travel by active transport.
To make this possible without major loss of convenience, it is necessary to establish very low emission zones, to abolish parking quotas for new buildings, to set up comprehensive car-sharing services as well as innovative logistics concepts for the “ last mile.
With only a few decades left to achieve total carbon neutrality, it is surprising to see very few eco-neighbourhood pilot projects in Canada showing how zero-carbon solutions can work in practice. Quite often, carbon-neutral eco-districts are not built today because of the substantial initial investments they require, which only become profitable after ten years or more.
As part of the Montreal Climate Partnership, a new initiative led by Concordia University’s New Generation Cities Institute has been set up to create an accelerator for sustainable building projects. This initiative connects relevant city stakeholders with the financial, real estate, energy and research sectors, as well as consultants, to reduce barriers to building green and affordable housing. Many more local actions and structures like these will be needed to increase the speed of execution.
Density is the key to creating more sustainable neighborhoods with a better quality of life. If a considerable portion of the population moves to the countryside, as we have seen during the pandemic, our urban sprawl will increase the pressure exerted on our current biodiversity, already under considerable pressure because of our way of life and our production of food, commodities and consumer goods.
Last but not least, a healthy, inclusive and equitable environment is key to achieving a true next-generation city. Living in such neighborhoods could become our new urban dream as well as an indispensable driver of sustainable transformation.