Media Release – Town of Stratford Announces Greenhouse Gas Emission Reduction Targets
April 13, 2017
At the monthly council meeting last night, the Town of Stratford shared content from the new Community Energy Plan, and announced the Town's greenhouse gas emission reduction targets. The Town of Stratford has been a member of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) Partners for Climate Protection Program since 2008 wherein the town has agreed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions within the community.
Stratford embarked on the development of a Community Energy Plan in 2016 in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the town, conserve energy, use required energy more efficiently, save money, increase energy self-sufficiency, and motivate local economic activity.
"The Community Energy Plan will help us to achieve our sustainability objectives and it will help residents and businesses in the town to save money on electricity and heating fuel and to reduce the amount of carbon tax they will have to pay when it is implemented" said Mayor David Dunphy.
By 2026, Stratford strives to reduce the town corporation's greenhouse gas emissions by 20% below 2015 levels, and reduce the community's 2026 emissions by 6% below 2015 levels. The conservative community target can be attributed to the town's limited control over individual resident emissions and to the projected continued population growth. This community target will require per capita greenhouse gas emissions to be reduced from 8.44 tonnes in 2015 to 5.51 tonnes by 2026 -a reduction of 35% per capita, based on anticipated population growth. It is important to note that residents will not be the only ones who have to reduce their GHG emissions; to reach the 5.51 per capita target decrease, reductions must be attained equally between the transportation sector, commercial sector, and residential sector. The community target will be reviewed and adjusted as necessary in 2021, to better align with the federal and provincial targets.
Residents and businesses in the town have been engaged in the process of developing ideas to reduce energy use and greenhouse gas emissions and increase renewable energy installations. These suggestions are currently being collated and will be included in the draft Community Energy plan which will be presented to residents and businesses for review in May 2017.
It is the Town of Stratford's intent to remove barriers to action, and to align with any related federal and provincial programs; a funding application is currently in development for a pilot project to achieve these objectives.
For more information on Stratford's greenhouse gas emission reduction targets or Community Energy Plan, please contact Robert Hughes at [email protected] or 902-569-1995.
-30-
Media Contact:
Erin Clarke
Community Engagement Coordinator
Town of Stratford
T: (902) 569-6921
E: [email protected]