Hamilton’s industry blamed for incredibly high rate of carbon emissions

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Published December 16, 2019 at 9:27 pm

A new report finds that Hamilton is falling behind the rest of the province in terms of reducing Greenhouse Gas emissions.

A new report finds that Hamilton is falling behind the rest of the province in terms of reducing Greenhouse Gas emissions.

A report on Carbon Emissions Inventory for the GTHA from The Atmospheric Fund (TAF) released Monday (Dec. 16) found that Hamilton emits 19.1 tonnes of carbon emissions (tCO2eq) per capita, which soars above the provincial average of 6.9 tCO2eq per capita.

The city’s industrial emissions, the report says, are to blame. It says that 58 per cent of Hamilton’s carbon emissions are attributed to the industrial sector.

Also, industrial emissions are increasing: in 2017 they were 145,244 tCO2eq higher than in 2015.

Interestingly enough, in other sectors, Hamilton has lower than GTHA average per capita emissions. Its per capita emissions from transportation are only 2.6 tCO2eq, whereas nearby regions like Peel have 2.8 tCO2eq per capita transportation emissions.

The report says that “industrial emissions will need to be tackled if the city is to reach carbon neutrality, but this is an area with a lot of potential for reductions.”

It says that single projects and initiatives can make a significant impact in the industrial sector, because the emissions are concentrated in a small number of facilities.

Hamilton’s population density, which is high compared to other nearby municipalties, may make it easier to achieve modal shifts in transportation and reduce emissions from this sector.

“With support from TAF, Environment Hamilton is collaborating with multiple sectors to increase public transit uptake and accessibility within Hamilton, to shift behaviour and reduce transportation emissions further,” the report says.

Partnership will be central to tackling industrial emissions, the report maintains.

The Hamilton Chamber of Commerce, with the support of a TAF grant, is advancing the reduction of emissions through recovery of industrial waste heat.

The chamber is conducting a project that will map out the sources of waste heat along Hamilton’s industrial waterfront, which could lead to the implementation of waste-heat to energy applications that will reduce industrial emissions.

Overall, GTHA carbon emissions fell slightly in recent years, by 3.34 per cent in 2016, and 0.04 per cent in 2017.

After a century of continually rising emissions,” the report says, “this is a significant accomplishment considering the region’s population grew by nearly a quarter-million over this timeframe.”

The report goes on to temper these findings by noting that if the GTHA is to reach carbon neutrality by 2050, most of the sources of the 49.2 million tonnes, or megatonnes, of carbon emissions must be eliminated.

To meet this target, if emissions fell linearly they would need to be reduced by seven per cent per year — four times the current — even as the region’s population continues to grow.

Main photo courtesy Doug Kerr via Flickr.

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