Toronto surpasses target for 2020 Greenhouse Gas Emissions, calls for ambitious future targets

The GHG Emissions Inventory also identifies direct and indirect GHG emissions from three key sectors: buildings, transportation, and waste.

TransformTO Net Zero Strategy, adopted by Toronto City Council in December 2021 outlines Toronto’s City’s accelerated reduction targets. Toronto’s target to reduce community-wide emissions to net zero by 2040 is one of the most ambitious in North America.

Like other major cities globally, the city released its Sector-based GHG Emissions Inventory on a two-year lag cycle.

To ensure the best available data, Toronto waits for Canada’s national inventory to be submitted to the United Nations Framework on Climate Change, as part of its commitment to the Paris Agreement.

Canada’s submission contains detailed province-specific values that are used to calculate Toronto’s emissions.

Based on 1990 levels, the city’s interim GHG reduction targets are 45 per cent by 2025 and 65 per cent by 2030,

Toronto’s transportation sector with decreased activities due to COVID-19 restrictions saw the most dramatic emissions decrease: almost one-fifth lower than in 2019.

Buildings continued to be the primary source of GHG emissions in Toronto, totalling 58 per cent of community-wide emissions, an increase of two per cent over 2019.

Waste sector emissions, primarily from landfills, comprised roughly nine per cent of community-wide emissions.

City of Toronto corporate emissions, or local government emissions, decreased by roughly 15 per cent compared to 2019 and continued to account for about five per cent of community-wide emissions.

In November 2022, Toronto was recognized as a global leader in environmental action and transparency and achieved a place on the “CDP Cities A-List” for the fourth consecutive year.

The global environmental disclosure system that helps companies, cities, and regions measure and manage their risks, and opportunities, on climate change, water security, and deforestation are run by CDP (formerly Carbon Disclosure Project), an environmental impact non-profit organization.

(Reporting by Asha Bajaj)