Climate Emergency

 

Our Promise to You

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TEAM's commitment to a livable city includes climate-change policies focused on reducing emissions through mitigation strategies that are effective and equitable, but also practical, sustainable, and affordable for residents and businesses.

 

How We Will Get There

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Addressing the climate emergency is an essential part of creating a livable city for current and future generations. We have to both reduce the emissions that are adding to the problem and bolster our defences. Our climate emergency policy will include:

• Using incentive-based policies to encourage transition to lower emission targets, and making strategic mitigation plans while minimizing impacts on affordability

• Providing incentives for conversion to electric vehicles and charging options, and building systems for heat and hot water with heat pumps and solar panels

• Working with TransLink to convert the existing bus system to an electric fleet, and to expand frequent service on all arterials 

• Considering all environmental aspects in planning, development, and transit, including the full life cycle of the supply chain, and planning for buildings to last longer than a few decades

• Working directly with neighbourhoods to reduce driving by creating practical, walkable communities 

• Planning for long-term resiliency and stability, including adapting to and mitigating rising sea levels, floods, water shortages, and heat domes by expanded tree planting, tree protections, and enhancement of green space

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The Issues

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Addressing the climate emergency is an essential part of creating a livable, affordable, safe and sustainable city to serve the current and future residents' interests.  TEAM feels that policy has to be both effective, sustainable and also sensible for residents of what is already one of the least affordable cities on Earth. 

 

TEAM Perspective & Action Plan

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TEAM takes the global climate emergency very seriously and will ensure Vancouver does its part. TEAM will focus the City's efforts on where we can achieve the best tangible, measurable outcomes and apply them in a practical way, while considering the socioeconomic and broader impact of those measures on the residents and businesses affected. TEAM will ensure that plans going forward are effective, will avoid "green-washing", and are the best way to implement meaningful reductions in carbon.

 

Action Items:

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Resilient city planning

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1. Focus on the 3 Rs: Reduce, Reuse and Recycle for a sustainable and green city;

2. Have incentive-based policies to encourage transition to lower or zero emission targets, such as free parking for electric vehicles;

3. Invest in strategic planning for flood preparation and mitigation measures;

4. Avoid and mitigate heat island effects by expanded tree planting, mature tree protections, retention and enhancement of green space, building under the urban forest canopy whenever possible, and consider the heat island impacts of development growth when planning communities;

5. Prioritize adaptive reuse of existing buildings rather than the current bias towards demolition and new construction, since the greenest building is the one that already exists. It is better for the environment to extend the life cycle of buildings while updating them for current and future needs;

6. Plan for long term resiliency and stability;

7. Plan for adaptation and mitigation to extreme heat, rising sea levels, floods, drought/water shortages, food security etc.

8. Upgrade city infrastructure to improve the environment, such as to avoid raw sewage or pollution going into False Creek, and ensuring that growth and capacity of infrastructure are aligned;

 

Move to electric

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1. Consider all environmental aspects affecting climate change in planning, development and transit, including the embodied greenhouse gases (GHGs) in the full life cycle of the supply chain, from resource extraction, transportation, manufacturing, materials, heat island effects, demolition waste and building life expectancy; plan for buildings to last hundreds of years, not a few decades;

2. Work with BC Hydro to reduce the cost of electricity to consumers by adjusting the step energy charges to incentivize electrical use rather than a disincentive. Current cost rates increase by 50% from Step 1 to Step 2;

3. Support transitions to electric vehicles by ensuring minimum onsite parking requirements in new construction are applied to allow for expansion of charging infrastructure;

4. Establish through policy and incentives the expansion of public charging infrastructure;

5. Make it easier to add electric vehicle charging in existing and new residential homes by reviewing and simplifying the Building Code and regulatory requirements;

6. Work with TransLink to electrify the bus system to reduce noise, GHGs, particulates and diesel air pollution;

 

Walkable communities

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1. Focus on neighbourhood-based planning for complete walkable communities within the local context, that is served by affordable electric transit throughout the arterial network rather than only a few expensive transit corridors;

2. Work with the Province to locate K-12 educational facilities within walking distance of where students live, as up ¼ of car trips per day involve the transportation of school age children;

 

Consider all the ramifications of climate action initiatives

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1. Climate emergency action should have defined goals and avoid green-washing of other agendas; 

2. Avoid policies that unfairly impact low-income residents;

3. TEAM will not implement road pricing which unfairly affects affordability, tracks individuals' movement that is against civil rights, and discourages access to local businesses in the affected area;

4. TEAM will not adopt city-wide parking permits as previously proposed by this Council;

5. TEAM will incentivize voluntary adaptation of existing buildings to improve energy efficiency and conversion to zero emission, rather than mandatory regulation as currently proposed, that may not be practical or is beyond people's resources.