Clean Air Council

Smart/Sustainable/Resilient

Clean Energy Technology & Disinformation

Government, companies and communities want to be certain which technologies really are green, and which are not, in the face of today’s well-funded, sophisticated disinformation efforts. During this webinar, Mark Jacobson and host Bruce Nagy exposed the disinformation strategy currently being implemented by fossil fuel interests in academic journals, and on mainstream and social media. Participants received accurate information on hydrogen, carbon capture, nuclear, biomass, biofuel, wind, water, solar, storage, electric transportation and clean building systems.

Other Resources Mentioned During the Webinar

 

Climate Lens of Combined Heat and Power

In this webinar, Juan Sotes from The Atmospheric Fund shared their analysis of the climate impact of different space heating alternatives (boilers, heat pumps, CHP) and their alignment with net-zero targets. The analysis presented direct combustion and lifecycle emissions comparisons, providing emission factors to facilitate the calculation of the GHGs of projects. It demonstrated that while CHP generates emissions reductions compared to current systems, is not consistent with our carbon budgets to Net Zero, even with optimistic hydrogen and renewable natural gas adoption, especially if we look at full LCA emissions. With the current electricity generation forecast, heat pumps are similar in carbon intensity as CHP over the next 20 years. Therefore, what is needed is a significant combined investment in heat pumps and renewables to meet our climate goals.

Resources:

Insurance Companies and the Perceived Risk Related to Energy Storage

Insurance companies’ risk determination related to solar PV and storage may pose a challenge to implementing community distributed energy actions (which is a high priority in all municipal Climate Action Plans). Jen Aitchison, from Hugh Wood Canada, shared her insights about insurance risk determination for renewable energy and energy storage projects.

Applying and Equity Lens to Climate Action Planning and Actions

This workshop featured presentations from Theresa McClenaghan and Jacqueline Wilson from CELA and the Low Income Energy Network (LIEN), Randy Sa’d from REFOCUS, and Claire Bennett from City of Kitchener, who presented their upcoming research and collaborative partnerships to bring stakeholders (municipal, academic, equity groups, and social innovators) together to explore how to put equity goals into practice in climate action planning. This was an interactive webinar and all the feedback/input is compiled in the Proceedings from the Equity Workshop (PDF file).

Presentations:

Resources:

(additional resources can be found in Proceedings from Equity Workshop file)

  • VERiS Sustainability Justice Call for Partners:  Cities can join the project/partnership development process which will continue through 2020.  By signing up using the instructions within the attached, individuals will receive access to all of the materials REFOCUS has shared, and the opportunity to join the group of partners developing the project.  This includes the possibility of, like the City of Kitchener, becoming a case study participant in REFOCUS’s multi-year applied research program focused on integrating social justice and accessibility into Climate Action Planning through innovation in municipal planning.
  • The following are references to several management innovations central to the Enterprise Evolution program that were mentioned in Randy’s presentation.  The references themselves are all free to access and quite informative:
  • Kitchener Corporate Climate Action Plan- The plan includes the risk score findings, screenshot of which was presented in Claire’s presentation.
  • 2018 Healthy Environments and Climate Change Guideline – Ontario Public Health Standards require health units to assess health impacts related to climate change.
  • Climate Change Toolkit for Health Professionals- Module 7 of the Climate Change Toolkit for Health Professionals addresses the policies and programs that have been implemented by communities across the country to protect people from climate change impacts and/or to increase community resiliency. Vulnerable populations are considered throughout.
  • OPHA #MakeItBetter Campaign- This project by Ontario Public Health Association (OPHA) in partnership with leading health and environmental organizations is working to protect children’s health.
  • Energy Poverty by Canadian Urban Sustainability Practitioners (CUSP)- Energy poverty affects households with diverse income ranges, and individuals who live in a variety of housing types all across Canada. CUSP created Energy Poverty and Equity Explorer tool to help the understanding and addressing energy poverty, and support policymakers to progress on a number of these critical priorities and ensure we “leave no one behind” in the low-carbon transition.
  • Low Income Energy Network (LIEN) – This site is designed primarily to share information with the Network about LIEN’s activities, and activities of its members on issues related to addressing the energy needs of Ontario’s low-income households and energy issues. The low income energy programs’ design explicitly recognize that there cannot be upfront capital contribution requirements from the participants, and also that the programs need to be “turnkey” – the residents in these programs need to be left with fully functional results and not, for example, having to finish work such as wall finishes etc. Conservation programs reviewed at the Ontario Energy Board have adopted modified “total resource cost” analysis for the low-income programs in particular, in recognition of co-benefits like health and many others to accommodate this problem of how cost benefit is traditionally done.
  • Town of Ajax map on social vulnerability in relation to heat island and tree coverage- This study examined the relationship between tree stress and climate variables such as temperature and precipitation. These results provided city planners with tools needed to plan for the predicted increase in extreme heat events and mitigation of the effects on the community. The study used Stat Can and municipal data.

 

Emerging Technologies, Electric and Autonomous Vehicles

While municipalities are transitioning towards using a low carbon fleet, the need for emerging technology is rising. In this webinar, we learned more about portable solar EV chargers from Andy Ike, Envision Solar. In the second part, we explored the Canadian legal framework on autonomous vehicles. Fahad Shuja from the Ontario Good Roads Association talked about how Ontario is ahead of the curve with its Ottawa-Windsor Preferred Corridor project. Fahad Khan from the City of Toronto presented the Automated Shuttle Trial.

 

Presentations:

Resources:

Transport Canada resources:

Ontario resources:

City of Toronto resources:

Road Space Reallocation Webinar Discussion

Below is a  summary of the discussion as well as next steps and upcoming actions on the Planning for COVID and Climate efforts to bring all your amazing thoughts and insights together. Just as a reminder some of the hoped for outcomes of this effort include (but are not limited to):

  • Ensuring that there is a Sustainability/Climate Lens applied to municipal COVID Response and Recovery Teams (we recognize that this is only one a number of lenses that will need to be applied to this);
  • Ensuring that who ever is designated on the team to enable the team as a whole to apply that lens is supported in the ability to know how and when it makes to apply it and how they can help their other team members to consider it;
  • In order to achieve those above goals there is a crowd sourced collective effort to explore and summarize opportunities and consideration for how to apply that sustainability/climate lens;
  • There is also an effort to get feedback/input from municipal politicians involved in the new Municipalities Acting Together on Climate (MACT) Network CAP is helping to facilitate so that both a staff and politician perspective is taken into account;
  • Identification and advancement of messaging to other levels of government re municipal input on the need to bring together our COVID and Climate goals (longer term hoped for outcome and success of this hoped for outcome will largely be based on municipal alignment between their COVID/Climate Emergencies response.

Here is the link to the most up to date power point slides compiling input thus far: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1SRG-h1xY24uxT1-olX67wmA7zqzKJjuyh_PHfUKk33o/edit?usp=sharing

Re updates to messaging. This was not discussed during our call but was discussed in the afternoon during the MACT Network discussion but just wanted to highlight this update to the messaging:

Just as a summary

POSSIBLE ACTION ITEMS

  • Identification of where physical distancing space is limited (anecdotally, community input, crowdsourcing a map/pinch points,  street/sidewalk width analysis)
  • How to apply an equity lens to COVID response re road space reallocation. CAP will be undertaking some research to learn how others are applying an equity lens to their COVID/road space re-allocations). Future sharing on this. Feedback/where a municipality has experience on this please send an email to gkalapos@cleanairpartnership.org
  • Priorities re decision making: conversations within municipalities related to prioritization (physical distancing; more space for outdoor exercise; increasing access to outdoor space especially where green space is not as accessible; bringing people to businesses (ex. downtown); what is the most important considerations, for where and why?

Gaps in Messaging Identified Thus Far

(May still be premature for this discussion. While we may be worried about this taking place, we should not assume that it will take place. Thankfully there are far more calls for ensuring we continue to address our climate change emergency as part of our COVID Response and Recovery).

  1. How to respond to possible arguments re: that we don’t have money for climate because we spent too much on COVID?
  2. One could also say that we didn’t have money for COVID but we found it because we decided that it was worth investing in saving people’s health and lives.
  3. If we are okay investing in saving lives as a result of COVID what about saving lives and protecting our economy from Climate shocks?
  4. How come it is okay to invest/go into debt to save our older and vulnerable populations but we can’t afford to invest in reducing the risks future generations will experience from climate change impacts?
  5. Especially since we know that the younger generation will also be key to paying back these debts?
  6. Climate presents greater and longer term risks to our economy and public health than COVID.

Motivations for Reallocating Road Space

#1: To safely provide adequate space for physical distancing.

#2: To provide an alternative to transit.

#3: To support residents’ physical and mental health.

#4: To build a more sustainable post-COVID city.

Types of Road Space Reallocations

  • Temporary Health Corridors
  • Pilots
  • Pinch Points
  • Curbside Queuing
  • Open Streets/ Slow Streets

Considerations for Road Space Re-Allocation

  1. Emergency vehicle access
  2. Local business/resident vehicle access
  3. Waste services access
  4. Transit vehicle access
  5. Risk of encouraging people to leave their homes or congregate
  6. Equity across mode users considerations: How to apply?

Some Additional Longer Term/Enabling Considerations 

  1. E-Mobility considerations (regulations re children on e-bikes, safety re different speeds) this is a future topic area)
  2. Increased bike parking requirements/theft of equipment/Disinfection guidance
  3. Weather condition consideration

If you can let us know about the following questions and feedback that will help us build upon where we are at present

  • What are some of the conversations occurring within your municipality related to road space reallocations?
  • What are some of the pros/cons/issues for consideration that are being raised?
  • What supports would be of value to facilitate these conversations within your municipalities?

COVID, Green Space and Community Gardens Discussion

Thanks for taking the time to join this collective effort and putting your amazing brains towards advancing the thinking re Green Space, Community Gardens and COVID challenges and potential opportunities.

The Green Space and Community Gardens slides have been updated to include the input and provided and the resources and action items identified.

The slides are available via the google link: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1MqVj9xaMyfdB6v4-0pZkIw2nRmS7v6Kjz-2kCo9EFFU/edit?usp=sharing

I have added into the messaging some excellent insights and perspectives from Louise Comeau from the Conservation Council of New Brunswick from her presentation on Nurturing caring values, communicating in a pandemic: While not undermining environmental protection now and in the future. I really loved some of the below perspectives (and not just because I am a closet romantic J) but because it is something that really resonated with me. As shocking as this global pandemic is, this is the first time in my life where I have seen humanity make the decision that saving lives is more important than the economic hits it will lay on us. I am quite proud of our species for the way people are making personal sacrifices for the sake of protecting not just ourselves but each other. Just wanted to share some of her wonderful insights.

Communications Tips

  • Don’t only talk about economic stimulus, talk about just recovery, rebuilding, renewing, reimagining, economic and ecological resilience, community and personal preparedness and security.
  • Try not to use the war narrative. This is a love story, not a war one. This is about humanity coming together to protect each other, putting public health and lives as a priority, it shows our inter-connectedness, dependence on each other, how humans are willing to support each other and make sacrifices for each other’s sake. 
  • It shows our respect and appreciation for our shared humanity.

Advancing the Smart/Sustainable/Resilient Nexus

This webinar explored opportunities to decrease the conflicts and increase the synergies associated with advancing the smart/sustainable/resilient opportunities.

The feedback provided during the webinar will be complied and will inform next steps.

Presentation:

  • Gabriella Kalapos, Workshop Goals and Introductions and Clean Air Partnership’s Efforts to Understand and Advance the Smart/Sustainable/ Resilient Nexus (PDF of Presentation)
  • Maciej Podoski and Bill MacGowan, Cisco’s Efforts to Advance the Smart/Sustainable/Resilient Nexus (PDF of Presentation)
  • Mark Luckhardt, Sidewalk Labs’ Efforts to Advance the Smart/Sustainable/Resilient Nexus
  • Juan Sotes, Carbon & Co-Benefits Quantification Manager at The Atmospheric Fund (TAF), The Case for Regional Carbon Emissions Inventories (PDF of Presentation)

Resources: