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The following is written by freelance journalist Chris Benjamin and submitted to The Laker News by Quest as part of the Powered By Communities communication campaign.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n HRM:<\/strong> In January 2019, Halifax City Council declared a climate emergency and asked its staff for a new 30-year climate plan. \u201cWe had a year to do everything,\u201d says Shannon Miedema, Manager of Energy & Environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cEverything\u201d included deep engagement with more than 250 government departments, utilities, non-profits, academics, businesses, Mi\u2019kmaq communities, African Nova Scotian communities, Acadian groups and young people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The plan, which they called HalifACT 2050<\/em>, was delayed until June by COVID-19. Miedema worried its ambitions wouldn\u2019t survive an impending financial crisis. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The plan\u2019s goals included making all new buildings net-zero (producing as much energy as they use) by 2030, retrofitting all existing buildings by 2040, all new vehicle sales being electric by 2030, having completely net-zero municipal operations by 2030, vastly expanding public transit, active transportation corridors and greenspaces, and ultimately the near elimination of greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [adrotate group=”6″]<\/p>\n\n\n\n [adrotate banner=”31″]<\/p>\n\n\n\n That\u2019s a 5.8 million metric tonne reduction in carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) emissions. Consider this: just one metric tonne of CO2e is equivalent to driving 216,000 cars for an entire year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The investments in energy efficiency, district energy systems (efficiently networked heating and cooling systems for multiple households), and large solar and wind installations will generate 170,000 person-years of employment and save $22 billion over the life of the plan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [adrotate banner=”34″]<\/p>\n\n\n\n [adrotate banner=”92″]<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now that the plan has been accepted and received financial support, Miedema has noticed a change in procedure at HRM, with staff from other departments consulting her about reports she didn\u2019t know existed, seeking a climate perspective. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe\u2019re doing an electric vehicle strategy that will enable us to work on supplying recharging facilities,\u201d she says. \u201cWe\u2019re working on a retrofit plan for our 300 municipal buildings. When we do scheduled maintenance, we can now work with operations to check the insulation and energy production.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n As it implements such action, working closely with key stakeholders, the city hopes to become a national leader in climate action and create a better, more livable city.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [adrotate group=”9″]<\/p>\n\n\n\n [adrotate banner=”96″]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [adrotate banner=”93″] [adrotate banner=”94″] The following is written by freelance journalist Chris Benjamin and submitted to The Laker News by Quest as part of the Powered By Communities communication campaign. HRM: In January 2019, Halifax City Council declared a climate emergency and asked its staff for a new 30-year climate plan. \u201cWe had a year […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13734,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,957],"tags":[10,1622,121],"class_list":["post-18136","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-news","tag-beaver-bank","tag-climate","tag-hrm"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18136","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18136"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18136\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13734"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}