Charlottetown residents can now easily track the city’s progress on its climate action plan using a new online tool. The climate action tracker website displays how well the city is meeting its targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, both from the community and corporate sectors, and tracks the implementation of each action item in the plan.
Kristen Gore, Charlottetown’s acting climate action officer, emphasized the importance of the city taking a leadership role in addressing climate change. She highlighted the need for transparency and accountability, which the public platform aims to enhance by engaging the community in shared climate responsibility.
Introduced in April, Charlottetown’s climate action plan focuses on enhancing climate adaptation and mitigation efforts through three key areas: connected and resilient communities, low-carbon infrastructure, and municipal climate leadership. The plan includes 46 key performance indicators (KPIs) such as community garden area, housing density, tree planting rates, and LED street light usage, with the potential for more KPIs to be added as data availability improves.
The live tracking platform, a goal within the plan itself, provides updated data to residents, ensuring they have access to the latest information on the city’s progress. The plan sets ambitious targets, including a 50% reduction in community greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 compared to 2015 levels and a 75% reduction by 2040. To achieve these goals, actions like supporting energy-efficient practices in rental units and testing car-free zones in downtown areas have been proposed.
The plan also addresses corporate greenhouse gas emissions, aiming for a 30% reduction by 2030 and 60% by 2040. Initiatives such as using electric equipment and natural lawn maintenance methods, including the recent use of sheep for grass-cutting, are part of the strategy. The five-year plan will undergo a comprehensive review in 2030, offering opportunities for feedback and discussions through the tracker as the city progresses towards its climate goals.
Gore encourages residents to actively engage with the platform to monitor the city’s advancement, stressing that tracking the data updates and proximity to targets will serve as key indicators of the progress made in Charlottetown’s climate action efforts.