Buildings Account for Almost 20% of all GHGs in Canada
The Government of Canada is ramping up efforts to achieve net-zero carbon emissions. The latest strategy targets the nation’s 16.5-million buildings, a crucial contributing component to Canada’s excess greenhouse gas emissions.
Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson announced on August 17th in North Vancouver that the federal government is launching consultations on its $150-million Green Building Strategy. The Green Building Strategy is a suite of policy changes intended to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from homes and businesses across the country.
Buildings account for approximately 13% of all greenhouse gas emissions in Canada. That number rises to 18% if you include the electricity sources required to run the buildings. Those numbers place Buildings as the third highest contributing source, behind only Oil and Gas (27%) and Transportation (24%). According to Natural Resource Canada estimates, there are around 16 million dwellings across the country and nearly 500’000 commercial buildings. Approximately 70% of these buildings are expected to still stand in 2050, the year by which Canada has committed to achieving zero emissions.
The Government of Canada already offers monetary grants of up to $5’000 for home energy efficiency improvements, such as the installation of heat pumps. They also provide $40’000 interest-free loans for larger projects. The newly introduced Green Building Strategy, due to be finalized in 2023, is intended to expand upon those grants.
As for new builds, Jonathan Wilkinson claims that they will figure heavily into the strategy. According to Wilkinson, the government does intend to move forward with regulations that will eventually require net-zero building codes.
Canada’s Green Building Council estimates that there will be 1.5-million jobs in the sector by 2030, up from the 462’000 today. Wilkinson said that the plan does include a strategy already seen in the Netherlands to standardize retrofits, which hopefully will make the business case sturdy enough for the private sector to join willingly.
An Existential Crisis for The World
For more information on the Green Building Strategy and other initiatives the Government of Canada is taking to achieve net-zero, go to NSNews.com:
“‘When it comes to climate change, I think we can all agree it's no longer a question of whether we should act. It is 'how' we should act to address what is clearly an existential crisis for the world. And the crisis is of particular importance to people of their age,’ he said gesturing to a group of youths present for the announcement.
‘They're all going to need to be retrofitted and deeply retrofitted if we are to achieve our net-zero goals,’ Wilkinson said. ‘This is no small task but we have already gotten started, and we need to accelerate those efforts going forward.’
‘We are going to need to think about innovative ways to attract private capital to help us to do this. Governments will not have enough money to be able to do all of that on their own,’ he said. ‘It's about creating good local jobs because when you renovate, retrofit and build buildings in your community, the best people to hire are the folks who are already there.’”
From Public Engagement to Get Canada's Buildings To Net Zero By 2050 Begins - North Shore News
Photo Source: JASON HAFSO via Unsplash
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Written by S2A Modular & Associates Inc.
August 17th, 2022