City of Saskatoon won’t meet its 2023 greenhouse gas emissions target

The City of Saskatoon might have some ambitious greenhouse gas emissions goals, but they won’t be met this year.

According to a report presented Tuesday to the Environment Committee, city councillors on June 26, 2017 approved greenhouse gas reduction targets proposed by the Saskatoon Environmental Advisory Committee.

The community-wide targets included a 15 per cent emissions reduction below 2014 levels by 2023, and an 80 per cent emissions reduction by 2050.

The corporate targets for the city included a 40 per cent reduction below 2014 levels by this year, and an 80 per cent reduction by 2050.

The city’s latest Climate Action Plan Progress Report in 2021 includes the progress towards those goals, and the corporate goals aren’t expected to be met this year.

“The city, as a corporation, emitted 217,800 tonnes CO2e in 2021, a decrease of three per cent compared to the 2014 baseline. A further 37 per cent reduction in corporate emissions is needed over the next two years to meet the City’s target of 40 per cent below 2014 levels. The City is not on track to meet this target,” the report read.

The community at large emitted 3,509,600 tonnes of CO2e in 2021 — a nine per cent decrease compared with 2014. As a community, “Saskatoon is currently on track to meet this target,” the report continued.

During Tuesday’s meeting, Coun. Sarina Gersher said more needed to be done.

“While we’ve got that first set of goals in, this report does remind me of the significant work that we have yet to do,” she told the committee.

Coun. Mairin Loewen agreed.

“It highlights that 70 per cent of GHG come from cities, and so it’s critical that cities continue to lead in this space. And our results are only as good as the work we put in,” she said.

She added the strength and the potential in cities’ climate change goals lie in actually doing what they say they’re going to do.

“We have some work to do to actually fulfil our commitments and so I think we’ve made those commitments; I believe they’re important for the future health of our community. Council has to figure out a way to support this work,” she continued.

The committee unanimously agreed to city administration recommendations to set net zero as a GHG target for 2050, to set interim targets through what’s called the “Low Emissions Community Plan Refresh,” and to use $250,000 to fund that refresh, along with adding it for consideration to the 2024-25 budget deliberations.

The recommendations will be passed on to city council.