Episode 64: Cities Combat Climate Change

Did you know that 50% of Guelph's emissions are due to the burning of natural gas in order to heat and provide hot water for residential and commercial buildings?  One way to lower our emissions is to implement energy efficiency retrofit projects.

That's where Our Energy Guelph (OEG) comes into the picture.  OEG endorses a program called PACE:  Property-Assessed Clean Energy.  A property owner borrows money through the municipality, uses it for an energy or water efficiency project, and then repays it over an extended period of time through property taxes.

A local climate bank (LCB) is another tool that Guelph can use to transition to the post-carbon economy.  In a nutshell, the money saved using retrofits is invested in Guelph to produce green energy for Guelph.

Alex Chapman, Executive Director of OEG, got us up to date on Guelph's initiatives regarding climate change.

David de Weerdt, Catalyst and founder of the Local Climate Bank Working Group, an initiative under development in Canada and Kenya, talked about LCBs.

Rob Kerr, former Community Energy Manager (2007 to 2017) for the City of Guelph, shared his experiences working as an energy and climate services consultant to Canadian municipalities.

Councillor Leanne Caron told us of a climate motion coming to Guelph city council on December 6th.   Contact your city councillors to show your support!

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