It can be hard to know where to start when thinking about climate change, but people in Campbell River will have a chance to learn which actions will have the greatest impact in the community and will be able to make a plan to reduce emissions in their community.
On Thursday, the North Island Climate Hub and Vancouver Island Regional Library will be hosting a community event to help find local solutions to climate change. Hosting the event will be North Island Climate Hub executive director Dawn Moorhead. Participants will be walked through the Community Energy Society’s Climate Action Planner, which breaks down how different actions will reduce emissions and costs associated with changes in fuel use.
”I’m going to facilitate a discussion with people from Campbell River about what Campbell River needs to do as a community to meet the 2030 greenhouse gas targets,” said Moorhead. “The community itself can solve 50 to 60 per cent of emissions. It’s a really good ground for action.”
”This is the first step in making a plan,” said Moorhead. “It’s hard to imagine how targets can be met without a plan. It just seems so amorphous with these facts.”
The planner is an interactive tool, where people input how likely an action, or “big move,” is to happen in their community. They can then see what kind of effect that will have on emissions in the community. The goal is to find a way to combine these actions to reduce emissions by at least 45 per cent by 2030.
The actions are split into six categories: shifting beyond the car to things like active transportation, transit and distance travelled, electrifying passenger vehicles, conversion of commercial vehicle fleets to electric, building better new buildings, improving existing buildings and then stopping emissions from waste disposal.
The different inputs allow people to see how much of an impact each kind of action has, and how the different likelihoods change that impact.
“Let’s say ‘do you think 100 per cent of people in Campbell River will have an electric vehicle in 2030? Do you think 50 per cent?’ The knowledge that’s needed is a knowledge for the community that you live in, and a feeling of what people may or may not be willing to do,” said Moorhead.
The event is meant to be collaborative, with people discussing how likely these changes are to occur in Campbell River over the next decade and finding a realistic picture of what Campbell River’s emissions could look like in 2030.
The event will be held over Zoom, and Moorhead will facilitate using the planner over a shared screen. It starts at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday and goes until 8 p.m. Those interested in attending can sign up at the VIRL Campbell River website. Those who cannot attend can still use the planning tool at www.communityenergy.ca/climate-action-planner.
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marc.kitteringham@campbellrivermirror.com
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