Climate Change Plans and Policies

The City of Peterborough aims to develop impactful projects, programs, and policies to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and adapt to climate change. In 2025, the Climate Change Action Plan 2.0 – Pathway to Net Zero 2050 (CCAP2.0) was approved by City Council. The CCAP2.0 targets emissions created in our community, such as from buildings and transportation. The CCAP2.0 is the central guiding document to decarbonize key polluting sectors in Peterborough till 2050.

The City will continue actively pursuing the implementation of mitigation measures to enable achieving the ambitious goal of net zero emissions. However, the City recognizes that sustained support is needed from the provincial and federal governments to influence and implement decarbonizing actions outside the authority of the municipality, such as updating building codes and vehicle emission standards. To track implementation progress, annual updates on CCAP2.0 initiatives will be submitted to City Council.  

Climate Change Action Plan - Community Strategies

The CCAP2.0 community strategies are categorized into seven Big Moves:

Land Use: transform urban design and land use to implement sustainable actions to achieve higher densification.

Green Buildings: built environment minimizing energy usage through swapping out fossil fuel energy sources for space heating and cooling, water heating.

Energy Supply: shift away from fossil fuels to renewable energy generation via local energy production.

Sustainable Transportation: public transit and active transportation are expanded with the use of electric and hydrogen vehicles for commuting as well as for freight and off-road vehicles.

Industry: reduce the energy intensity of the sector.

Waste: accelerate waste diversion and incorporate circular economy principles into the waste sector.

Forestry and Carbon Capture: enhance urban forests and implement carbon capture strategies when feasible.

Climate Change Action Plan - Corporate Strategies

The corporate strategies focus on five themes: Buildings, Fleet, Water & Sewage, Streetlighting, and Solid Waste. 

The City of Peterborough is accelerating municipal action to lessen GHG emissions being emitted from corporate sources and to demonstrate local leadership. The following are examples of corporate strategies that will diminish GHG emissions:

• Completed GHG decarbonization pathway studies for reducing 80% of GHG emissions from high emitting corporate buildings
• Installed electric vehicle charging stations for corporate fleet vehicles
• Purchasing light-duty electric and hybrid fleet vehicles during scheduled replacement
• Converting lawncare and snow removal equipment to battery electric models  
• Constructed a certified net zero fire station to replace Fire Station 2
• Completed conversion of streetlights with LED fixtures
• Implemented the city-wide Source Separated Organics composting program
• Constructed the Miskin Law Community Complex to high energy performance standards and solar ready capabilities 

For more examples of climate action progress by the City of Peterborough, visit Municipal Action. 

Climate Emergency Declaration

In 2019, City Council declared a climate emergency that expressed support for greatly accelerating timelines for introducing climate actions and to consider new actions and proposals to significantly lower GHG emissions. In the declaration, Council identified the need to achieve a target of 45% GHG emission reduction by 2030 below 2011 levels and net zero by 2050. The enhanced targets and CCAP2.0 are now aligned with the latest climate science that supports holding global temperatures to 2^oC or below.

Declaration motion

At the meeting of September 23, 2019, Council adopted the following motion in declaring a Climate Emergency:

Whereas: 

1. Climate change is the greatest crisis of our times worldwide, harming human and animal populations through extreme storms, severe flooding, record heat waves, prolonged droughts, and other natural disasters 
2. Climate change is contributing to billions of dollars in property and infrastructure damage worldwide and is viewed as the major public health threat in Canada for cardiovascular and respiratory illnesses and deaths  
3. International research has concluded that there is a need for massive carbon emissions reductions within the next 11 years to avoid further devastating damage to our environment, economy, and society 
4. Over 450 local governments, including 40 Canadian communities such as Ottawa, London, Hamilton, and Kingston have acknowledged this urgency by officially declaring a climate emergency. They are committed to action to drive down emissions at emergency speed. These Climate Emergency Declarations importantly involve the public and serve as Calls to Action by the Community as well as by Council and other levels of government.

That Council, pursuant to its authority under section 10 of the Municipal Act, 2001, hereby declares a climate emergency within the City of Peterborough for the purpose of naming, framing and deepening our commitment to protecting our community, its economy, and its eco systems from climate change, and,

• That staff, working with the Peterborough Environmental Advisory Committee (PEAC) be requested to also report on the opportunities to: 

• Greatly accelerate timelines for our existing actions to reduce the effects of climate change; 
• Add new actions and proposals to reduce greatly our GHG emissions; 
• Identify the budgetary implications of proposed actions, including opportunities to engage all other levels of government and private sources, to combat climate change; 
• Incorporate a climate change lens into all city actions and policies recognizing the need to achieve a target of 45% GHG emission reduction by 2030 and net zero by 2050;  
• Engage and educate the general public regarding this crisis to support the city’s efforts to meet these goals; and,
• That staff report back to Council by the end of the first quarter, 2020.  

Corporate Energy Management Plans

The City of Peterborough is mandated by the Province of Ontario to report annually on the energy consumption of city-owned facilities and create a five year energy plan to curb energy use. The municipality established the inaugural Corporate Energy Management Plan - 2014 to 2018, that outlined the initial energy reduction measures to achieve 5% reduction in energy use from 2013 levels. The following are the included measures:

• Increase staff awareness and motivate staff to change energy use behaviour
• Complete building energy audits at facilities
• Improve the efficiency of energy use through regular maintenance of equipment
• Recommissioning of existing corporate buildings
• Finalize energy procurement agreement through fixed rate contracts

In 2021, the City of Peterborough completed its second iteration with the introduction of the Corporate Energy Management Plan - 2019 to 2023. The new plan seeks to reduce corporate energy use by 10% from 2018 levels. Highlights of the plan include:

• Complete a solar energy potentials survey of corporate buildings
• Explore passive lighting solutions to lower the electric lighting use during daytime building hours
• Consider establishing a natural gas reduction working group to curtail gas consumption
• Investigate strategies to lessen energy use for hot water systems

In 2024, the third iteration of the City of Peterborough's Corporate Energy Management Plan Update 2024-2028 was completed. The updated plan is targeting to lower corporate energy consumption by 5% by 2028 from 2023 levels. Achieving the abatement goal will be enabled by the following actions:

• Submit a Corporate Buildings Retrofit Capital Funding application to the Federation of Canadian Municipalities
• Turning off boilers at specific facilities in the summer months
• Complete an energy conservation and resiliency study for the Police Station and auxiliary police buildings
• Introduce a project-level climate lens assessment
• Complete a comprehensive LED lighting retrofits at remaining facilities
• Install insulated window curtains at offices
• Modify interior temperature set points at facilities
• Submit multiple applications to Save On Energy
• Update the Sustainable Procurement Policy with enhanced sustainability indicators
• Initiate annual corporate building energy consumption reporting to City Council
• Establish quarterly divisional Sustainability and Energy Management meetings

Community Climate Change Resiliency Strategy

The Community Climate Change Resiliency Strategy (CCCRS) is a comprehensive adaptation plan that is being developed to lower the risk and vulnerability of Peterborough to the effects of extreme weather. The CCCRS is being finalized before implementation throughout the community with the following strategies being recommended:

• Reducing flood risk from severe changes of water quantity and protecting water quality
• Reducing damage to infrastructure and the built environment from extreme weather events
• Protecting and enhancing natural heritage features from climate risks
• Supporting urban agriculture and community gardens adapting and identifying new opportunities
• Educating residents and businesses about the impacts of climate change and how to prepare for extreme weather events
• Increasing the adaptive capacity of the local economy to prepare for disruptions to business, supply chains, and other factors
• Integrating municipal decision-making process to consider adaptation and risk prevention