Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson is headed to Copenhagen on Friday for a mayors’ conference identifying what the world’s biggest cities are doing, and can improve upon, in the fight against climate change.
Robertson will be armed with good news from Vancouver, where per capita greenhouse gas emissions are the lowest in North America.
He said Vancouver is disproving the conventional belief that emissions can’t be reduced in a city with a growing population.
“Our goal in going to Copenhagen is to show that cities can lead (and) can change the world,” Robertson said.
“I’m going to be taking the story of Vancouver’s success and talk about our goal to be the green capital and attract green business.”
Greenhouse gas emissions in Vancouver have been reduced by 11 per cent from their peak in 2000 to 2.7 million tonnes a year, and the city has reduced emissions from its own operations by 33 per cent through retrofits and the construction of more efficient buildings.
“Whether it’s the many energy efficient features of the Olympic Village project, our approach to land-use planning or the city’s transportation options, we are going to meet our Kyoto targets and in the process set the standard for North American cities,” Robertson said.
On Monday, the city signed a memorandum of understanding with B.C. Hydro to build a charging network for electric cars and create financial tools to enable profitable investment in building energy retrofits.
They’ve also partnered with Vancouver-based Pulse Energy, which will use energy management software to find ways to reduce energy consumption in the city’s largest buildings.
