London will miss its 2030 greenhouse gas reduction target

A target to lower London’s emissions set 6 years ago won’t be met by the target year. CTV’s Daryl Newcombe explains why.

City Council declared a “climate emergency” in April 2019, and three years later launched an action plan to guide London towards achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

The first milestone target is less than five year away.

On Thursday, city officials admitted to the Strategic Priorities and Policy Committee (SPPC) that the 2030 milestone target will not be reached on time, meaning even more difficult choices over the following two decades.

“It will require a longer period of time, it will not be 2030,” explained Jay Stanford, director of climate change, environment and waste management.

The Climate Emergency Action Plan includes a strategy to achieve London’s net-zero target, including milestones in 2030, 2035 and 2040.

The “fair share” milestone for 2030 is to reach a 55 per cent reduction from 2005 emission levels.

In 2024, London was only 22 per cent below the baseline.

“When we established this three years ago, the world was a different place,” Stanford told the committee. “We have to reflect on the fact that things have changed. Therefore, as we look into the future, there will be more heavy lifting.”

Coun. Skylar Franke acknowledged that emissions are not dropping fast enough.

“Doing the actions that we’ve outlined in the Climate Emergency Action Plan will not actually achieve our 2030 or 2050 targets, which I’m disappointed about, because it’s really important that we’re making investments now to mitigate the impacts of climate change.”

“Almost every city in Canada, they’re facing the same struggle,” Stanford said. “The movement is not occurring in the transportation sector or the household energy efficiency sector in the way it needs to be.”

According to the progress report, just 4.6 per cent of new vehicles purchased last year were electric vehicles (EVs) and 11.2 per cent were hybrids.

Ontario lags behind British Columbia and Quebec in EV adoption.

Franke cited a recent change by the provincial government that reduced the benefit of electrification. “The province is adding more gas (generation) to our electrical grid, so emissions for (civic buildings and services) are up 17 per cent higher than they should be because of that.”

Looking ahead, the progress report suggests focusing on implementing the Mobility Master Plan (MMP), supporting energy efficient homes and recognizing positive actions.

“We’re not panicking because there is a long runway. We have to have the continued action and support at all levels of government and throughout the community,” Stanford assured the committee.

The Climate Change Reserve (CCR) Fund was initially approved to receive $1 million per year in the municipal budget, but council has reduced that amount to $192,000 in response to competing priorities.

At the end of 2024, the CCR Fund totaled $1,192,000 with $225,000 allocated to upcoming projects.

“This council has shown that it’s potentially moving in the right direction, although we’re going to be missing those 2030 targets, which is really disappointing,” Franke told CTV News.

“But again, I think it demonstrates the need for this council and next council to make the investments now.”