Friends,
I hope you’re able to connect with friends and family this holiday weekend. To help with making plans, the City has outlined a list of City activities and facilities that are open and closed this weekend.
I also want to draw your attention to a City Staff Report titled Toronto's Climate Change Readiness: Updates on commitments and a refreshed mandate for coordinating resilience activities. The report, shared at the Infrastructure and Environment Committee this week updates on the City’s response to climate change. The update includes the first edition of the Annual TransformTO Net Zero Progress and Accountability Report.
This new annual report format offers a comprehensive and accessible view of City-led Greenhouse Gas reduction actions. I am pleased with the level of transparency and clarity this report provides, both in terms of progress achieved through the City's first Short-Term Implementation Plan (2022-2026) and the critical steps that need to be accelerated to achieve our goal of net zero emissions by 2040.
Some encouraging highlights in terms of City-led actions include the Toronto Green Standard, which will significantly reduce emissions from future new developments by requiring net zero designs, the development of Emissions Performance Standards to progressively reduce emissions in existing buildings, the greening of the City’s Corporate fleet, and the TTC planning for a zero-emission bus fleet by 2037 – three years ahead of schedule.
While this report reviews how the City’s actions are making a positive difference, it is also clear that the goal of net zero emissions by 2040 is at risk unless the City, other orders of government, residents, and businesses support and invest transformative actions that meet the scope and scale of the climate change. The report also highlights actions that are needed to build Toronto’s readiness at a local level to respond to the day-to-day needs of Torontonians living in an increasingly unpredictable climate.
Over the past year, extreme heat, wildfire, flooding, and storm events in Toronto, across Canada, and globally have illustrated how harmful and costly climate change can be to residents and the assets and services that support them. Reflecting on this, I am heartened by the fact that we will now have annual Net Zero Progress and Accountability Reports that will help keep us on track in rising to meet the climate challenge. I will continue to support staff’s efforts to advance the transformative solutions called for in our Net Zero Strategy and look forward to discussing it when this year’s report is considered by City Council on April 17, 2024.
I encourage you to engage with this work and join the City in advancing our Net Zero Strategy goals.
Sincerely,
Gord
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