Electric vehicle rebate among staff proposals to speed up Toronto’s target to become a carbon neutral city
On Monday, July 2, City of Toronto staff will be voting on dozens of proposals to speed up the city’s target to become a carbon neutral city.
To be clear, Toronto’s current goal is to become a carbon neutral metropolis by 2030.
We’ve been working on this since 2011. It’s the largest environmental sustainability initiative in municipal history.
We have not been able to hit our original 2025 target. But the time has come to expand our efforts to a global, equitable and sustainable economy.
We want to make Toronto a global leader on climate change. The next steps are:
We know that people power is important.
And that our economy is best organized when our labour is organised in a way that supports a better life for all of us.
By supporting this initiative, the city is also acting from the principle that climate change needs to be recognised as an issue that cannot be ignored or treated as a political football. It is a global crisis and so it becomes a global responsibility.
City staff will present the following proposals to council that will help us achieve our goal of becoming a carbon neutral city.
The initiative could provide funding to support the city’s green economy, including:
A pilot programme to advance green technologies used in the energy industry.
An “innovation tax credit” to provide financial support to new green technologies that can help the city become carbon neutral.
The establishment of a Climate Change Committee, which would be part of the city’s Strategic Plan, to support city staff in carrying out the initiative.
An initiative to attract green jobs and businesses to Toronto.
The creation of the Toronto Green Innovation Hub, which would provide co-location, space and technical support for new green technologies.
To help address the city’s greenhouse gas emissions, the staff proposal would:
Increase the use of green technologies in the energy industry, including advanced batteries that can store and distribute energy from traditional sources.
Encourage the use of natural gas in new city buildings and retrofit existing buildings that use or are designed to use natural gas.
Encourage the use
