The Greenest City on Earth

One of the most exciting ideas put forward by Gregor Robertson during his campaign for Vision Vancouver’s mayoral nomination is the idea of Vancouver as the greenest city on Earth.

With the planet’s temperature rising by more than half a degree in the last century due to climate-changing emissions, and the extreme weather effects of climate change are felt by hundreds of millions around the world as well as right here in Vancouver, there is both a practical reason and a moral obligation to act.

Around the world it is cities that are taking the boldest action on climate change because the solution to reducing emissions is all about re-localizing our economies and our lives. These cities don’t have anything we don’t have, other than political leadership.

Plus, when we act to stop climate change, we can’t help but impact a myriad of other environmental and social problems as well: traffic congestion and accidents, air quality, toxic pollution, meeting the challenges of the energy crises, urban sprawl, the list is long.

Bold action looks like:

Re-imagining Neighbourhoods
Increasing density without providing for more local production of goods and neighbourhood services, creates even more environmental damage as more goods are trucked in and more waste is trucked out. We need to build neighbourhood capacity to produce food, recover waste (composting), and even produce energy. We also need to maintain and build more walkable services such as neighbourhood schools and pools.

Get Vancouver Moving
In Portland, Oregon they have committed to get citizens moving not by increasing road space but by decreasing it and aggressively building transportation alternatives that make better use of our roads. This helps save money on road maintenance too: 50 people on a bus is much easier on a road than 50 individual cars. Consider that even in the developing world, cities like Curitiba, Brazil have invested in public transit to the point where 75% of the population use it as their primary way to get around. Vancouver can achieve the same results by actions such as dedicating more lanes to alternate transportation, developing a U-Pass for secondary school students, and committing to maximum wait and trip times for people using transit.

Regional Leadership
Many of the most critical decisions needed are at the regional level. We need city councillors that are strong advocates for maintaining local farmland and regional food production. We need city councillors that can find more creative solutions than incinerators for our garbage. And we need city councillors that are willing to stand up against provincial government pressure for unneeded mega-projects.