Mississauga accelerates plan of action to fight climate change
Published March 27, 2023 at 1:03 pm
Mississauga is speeding up efforts to reduce its carbon footprint in the face of scientific data predicting devastating climate change consequences that include more severe and frequent storms and flooding events lie ahead.
City of Mississauga council last week endorsed a motion to “reaffirm and strengthen the City’s commitment to climate action.”
The City says it will examine new interim 2030 targets to help reach net zero greenhouse gas emissions by or before 2050.
Officials say their “ambitious new targets,” along with other identified actions, will help limit the effects of climate change in Mississauga and aim to keep global warming within the global 1.5 degree Celsius goal.
“The science is clear and the City is committed to accelerating our targets and action pathways by leveraging new technologies and innovative solutions,” said Jodi Robillos, Mississauga’s commissioner of community services, in a news release. “This year, we’re continuing to electrify our corporate fleet, install additional electric vehicle charging stations, build net-zero facilities like Fire Station 125 and design a home energy retrofit program for residents.”
In 2019, City council declared a climate emergency and adopted Mississauga’s comprehensive Climate Change Action Plan. The plan seeks to decrease the City’s carbon footprint and prepare for the impact of a changing climate.
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The document includes 89 actions, of which more than 70 per cent have been completed or are currently under way, the City says.
“Climate change is one of the most pressing issues of our generation. We are continuing to see its effects throughout Mississauga and the world with extreme storms, warmer temperatures and increased flooding, which impacts our wildlife, infrastructure and livelihoods,” said Mayor Bonnie Crombie.
“We must hold ourselves accountable. However, we cannot do it alone. We must continue to work with other levels of government to advocate for funding as we look to fast-track our goal of achieving net zero to ensure our community and our city remain resilient for future generations to come.”
Last year, a climate change report from the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change sounded the alarm on climate change impacts, adaptation and vulnerability.
In essence, it said communities around the world including Mississauga and Brampton are looking at a dramatic increase in the number of extreme heat days in the near future.
“Mississauga is vulnerable to climate change, and time is not on our side. We have witnessed more extreme and frequent climate-related events in the last several years. If we don’t take action now, things will only worsen,” Robillos said earlier.
“Every year, we review and analyze the City’s progress on climate change action. Based on the data, we’re looking to accelerate the goals outlined in the Climate Change Action Plan to be more ambitious.”
Adhering to Mississauga’s 10-year Climate Change Action Plan that was adopted in 2019, the City says that as of this past December it has, among other things:
- installed 59 electric vehicle (EV) chargers for the City’s fleet and 22 public EV chargers
- added 38 kilometres of cycling infrastructure
- installed 15 low-impact developments throughout the City’s road right-of-ways
- acquired 38 acres of parkland
- developed a Zero-Emissions Vehicle Strategy in partnership with the Region of Peel, City of Brampton, Town of Caledon and local conservation authorities to help accelerate the adoption of electric vehicles throughout Peel
- added more than 60 low- and zero-emissions vehicles to the City’s fleet and replaced more than 40 diesel buses with second-generation hybrids
- launched the City’s first-ever Urban Agriculture Strategy to help grow more food locally and increase access to healthy foods
- moved forward with a feasibility study on district energy in the City’s downtown
- planted more than 460,000 trees since launching the One Million Trees program
- continued to monitor and control invasive species as part of the City’s Invasive Species Management Plan and Implementation Strategy