The City of Prince George was recognized by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities for reaching the final milestones in its work to reduce greenhouse gas emissions at a ceremony in Ottawa on Tuesday.
Under the Partners for Climate Protection program, the City of Prince George pledged to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 10 per cent between 2002 and 2012. In addition, the city committed to achieve a two per cent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions community wide during the same period.
It's unclear whether those targets were met, city community energy program manager Adrian Mohareb said. The baseline estimates for 2002 were proven to not be reliable by later, more accurate emission inventories. However, he said, the city has made significant progress on reducing its greenhouse gas emissions.
We've developed a sustainable energy management plan, Mohareb said.
We're tracking energy consumption in buildings and we've definitely seen a reduction.
Initial estimates placed the City of Prince George's operational greenhouse gas emissions at the equivalent of 7,097 tonnes of carbon dioxide per year in 2002. However a more detailed inventory, with more accurate tracking of fuel consumption by the city's fleet, pegged those emissions at 9,490 tonnes per year in 2009.
Once the city's district energy system comes online later this year, the city's emissions are expected to be 1,780 tonnes per year less than in 2009.
The district energy system is the big one, Mohareb said.
Instead of all those buildings downtown burning natural gas, they'll be
using biomass.
Other initiatives the city has taken to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions include energy efficiency upgrades; dimming streetlights to reduce power consumption; improving fleet management; installing a turbine to recover energy at the city's wastewater treatment plant and other initiatives, Mohareb said.
We have a total of 18 actions [in the energy plan]. Fifteen we've gone ahead with or are underway, he said.
Another 27 initiatives were aimed at reducing greenhouse gases in the community as a whole. A total of 23 of those initiatives have been completed or are underway.
The initial estimate for the city as a whole in 2002 was the equivalent of 804,596 tonnes of carbon dioxide per year. However a more detailed, province-wide inventory done in 2007 reduced that estimate to 660,300 tonnes per year.
Consultants recommended that Prince George reset its reduction target based on the 2007 numbers. The city has not yet made that change.
Prince George is the fifth Canadian city to achieve the final milestones for the Partners for Climate Protection program for both corporate and community emissions. Whistler, Vancouver, North Vancouver and Fredericton, New Brunswick are the other four communities to make the achievement.
The final milestone in the five-stage program is continuing to monitor and make progress on its greenhouse gas
reduction plan.
