In the lead-up to the 12-day UN climate change conference in Copenhagen beginning Monday, we caught up with Toronto Mayor David Miller — who will be speaking at the conference’s three-day Climate Summit for Mayors.
“All of the projections that have been done over the last 15 years about climate change … have all been exceeded by the reality of what’s happening,” Miller said. “The Earth is warming at a faster pace than anyone had predicted and it’s very clear that very urgent action is needed. If nations aren’t able to agree, that’s a huge challenge for mankind.”
Miller points to the reality that, worldwide, the majority of greenhouse gas emissions come from urban areas.
“Largely, the fight against climate change will be won or lost in the cities and that’s the importance of us being in Copenhagen and speaking up to influence the negotiation,” he said, adding he will be asking governments to engage, empower and resource cities in a global challenge to become greener.
As for Toronto, Miller says the top three sources of emissions are transportation, construction, and energy consumption.
“They are the top three solutions as well,” he said.
Miller says that in order to reduce the impact of transportation, Toronto needs to move to an electric-based transit system — something that is already underway — and green every vehicle choice. “Our transit city plan is the leading plan in North America with 120 kilometres of light rail transit.”
He also points out that the way we build our city is equally as important to our environmental impact. Miller says that setting benchmarks for new building sites and designs to be more environmentally friendly, like the Toronto Green Standard, is another important step.
And finally, how we generate energy is just as important, says Miller.
“We need to conserve, manage our demand and generate as much as possible from renewables.”
