Montreal’s Carbon Targets Fall Short

Montreal is going carbon neutral by 2050. But some climate change studies suggest the global temperature will reach 1.5ºC by 2040 or even as soon as 2030 – making these efforts too late.

Once the planet meets 1.5ºC, the world will go into a zone of dangerous climate change. Global warming is predicted to reach 4°C by the end of the century.

The City of Montreal told Local 514 that, “Achieving carbon neutrality requires balancing the sources and sinks of GHG emissions. For this balance to be possible, a rapid and unprecedented transition is needed in all sectors of the economy: [including] transportation, buildings, industry, energy, waste materials, agriculture, forestry, and land use.”

In an effort to prevent and slow climate change, the city of Montreal has put a plan in place to adopt 46 actions to meet this target.

Local 514 spoke to François Geoffroy, spokesperson for La Planète s'invite au Parlement, associate professor at John Molson School of Business Adriane MacDonald, sustainability director Chris Adam and project developer Jennifer de Vera from Dawson College considering Montreal's carbon neutrality plan.

Carbon neutrality is putting zero impact on the planet – this is done through having a balance between emitting carbon and absorbing it in our atmosphere through carbon sinks, which are forests, oceans and soil. Part of making Montreal carbon neutral is providing more green spaces and planting 500 thousand trees by 2030, another goal committed by the City of Montreal.

Montreal is already feeling the effects of climate change, through flooding and heat waves – but things can get much worse if action isn’t taken.

Climate disaster predictions include flooding in Montreal, with low-lying areas of the city being underwater within the next 80 years.

Montreal has 20 priorities to achieve carbon neutrality, including GHG reduction, improving nature in the city, sustainable transportation, becoming zero waste, and making our economy more green.

Some of these efforts include reducing food waste, promoting the use of electric vehicles downtown, converting parking lots into green spaces, constructing low-carbon buildings that consume less energy in order to meet carbon targets.

The City of Montreal will also begin applying a climate test on all city decisions to ensure GHG are limited and beneficial impacts on the climate are maximized.  

Geoffroy says the plan includes great ideas, but that a zero-oil future needs to be planned.

Lower-scale Advancements towards carbon neutrality are already happening in Montreal, so let’s take a look at some examples within our city.

Researchers at Concordia have been developing windows made of solar panels with the goal of achieving a net zero building – so a building that powers its electricity through solar energy implemented in its own structure.

Carbon neutrality isn’t just happening in buildings, but in entire schools.

Outside of Montreal, in Quebec, the University of Sherbrooke has also become carbon neutral this past June – 8 years ahead of schedule.

Dawson College, and English Cégep in downtown Montreal has been carbon neutral since 2019.

Efforts at Concordia, Dawson, Sherbrooke show that we can start carbon neutrality in our own communities, instead of waiting for politicians to take climate action.