These are Windsor's biggest climate pollution problems and the plans to fix them
CBC
The biggest drivers of climate pollution in Windsor are the energy used to control the climate in aging homes and the amount of fuel used for transportation, according to a new report heading to city council.
The report says both will require major investment to create meaningful change.
This is the first greenhouse gas emissions and energy usage report which breaks down where climate pollution is being created — and what council can do to reduce those emissions.
Windsor's council, which declared climate change a city emergency in 2019, has a goal of cutting city-wide emissions by 68 per cent of the 2005 totals by the end of 2030.
The report indicates Windsor is nearly halfway toward its goal, with a 30 per cent reduction in total emissions compared to 2005.
Staff are using the 2019 emissions for this recent report because the data during the pandemic years were not an accurate reflection of how Windsor generally operates.
According to the report, Windsor would need "1.9 million acres of forest or 26 million seedlings planted and grown for two years" to capture the carbon emissions produced in 2021.
That forest would be 52 times the size of Windsor.
Most of the emissions produced in Windsor, according to the report, come from fuel used to drive around the city, the industrial sector's reliance on natural gas, and the amount of energy used to heat and cool houses that are not energy efficient.
The biggest chunk of Windsor's pollution comes from the fuel people use to get around the city.
These emissions were measured by the amount of gas sold within the city and then using standard emission factors.
This type of climate pollution increased slightly in the years leading up to the COVID-19 pandemic, which the report said is consistent with Canada-wide trends.
The increase can be traced back to people buying heavier vehicles, according to the report, which "tend to have a worse fuel economy as compared to smaller vehicles."
When everyone was forced to stay home during the pandemic, there was a 20 per cent drop in the amount of on-road transportation emissions.
This story is part of CBC Health's Second Opinion, a weekly analysis of health and medical science news emailed to subscribers on Saturday mornings. If you haven't subscribed yet, you can do that by clicking here.
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