Personal Vehicles and GHGs – Driving Down Carbon in Ontario
April 9, 2010
The Pembina Institute has just published an interesting report on GHG emissions from personal vehicle use in Ontario’s Greater Golden Horseshoe (an area that covers about 70% of Ontario’s population and includes the cities of Toronto, Barrie, Mississauga and Markham). The report, Driving Down Carbon: Reducing GHG Emissions from the Personal Transportation Sector in Ontario looks at current emissions from personal vehicles and provides estimates for how effective the government of Ontario’s key personal transportation policies are likely to be in reducing GHG emission in the future.
The report’s authors Cherise Burda, Alison Bailie and Graham Haines conclude that, while Ontario’ current policies are definitely headed in the right direction, more action is needed to encourage and help Ontarians to reduce their vehicular travel.
Some key points from the report:
- Transportation is the largest and fastest growing source of GHGs in Ontario (and it accounts for almost 1/3 of the province’s emissions)
- Ontario’s proposed policies to reduce emissions from personal vehicular transportation, such as those contained in the Places to Grow Growth Plan for the Greater Golden Horseshoe and Metrolinx’s The Big Move program, will make an important dent in GHG emissions, but they aren’t enough to reduce Ontario’s GHG emissions from personal transportation because of predicted increased population growth in Ontario
- A mix of policy improvements is required to encourage an efficient and meaningful reduction in GHG emissions from this sector including reducing sprawl, increasing vehicle efficiency and increasing funding for transit
- Ontario should consider the use of innovative policies that will encourage people to make better transportation decisions including road-pricing strategies to reduce congestion, incentives that encourage transit use, safer streets for biking and walking, HOV lanes on all 400 series highways and pay-as-you drive auto insurance policies
This report provides a lot of information that will help municipalities, the provincial and federal government and private citizens recognize the importance of transportation in addressing climate change, and it provides some great guidance on where we need to target our resources; it’s well worth a read.