Hamilton is closer to taking some concrete action to tackle climate change.
The city will be submitting a grant application through the Canadian Federation of Municipalities for up to 80 per cent funding of a program through which residents could voluntarily replace things like windows and furnaces.
Members of the general issues committee also gave staff the go-ahead on Wednesday to design the home energy retrofit program, if the grant application is accepted.
Bay Area Climate Change Council (BACCC) manager Bianca Caramento says the program would be a critical step towards tackling climate change.
Caramento says heating, cooling and powering of buildings alone accounts for 18 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) in Hamilton and Burlington.
“The three biggest sources of emissions in our community,” said Caramento, are “industry, buildings and transportation, accounting for 95 per cent of overall emissions.”
“If we have any hope of meeting our climate targets,” added Caramento, “we need to implement measures that tackle emissions in the big three.”
Caramento said BACCC has been working with the City of Burlington on a similar program, “knowing that if we have a regional strength in this area, in looking to make retrofits affordable for folks in both Hamilton and Burlington, we’re going to see the emission reductions that we need to see.”
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Hamilton Mayor Fred Eisenberger noted that similar programs have come and gone over the years with the government of the day at the upper levels.
“Many folks in our community have done retrofits of their homes,” he said.
“Many, many more need to be done and a lot of them could have, probably have, are facing barriers of income or affordability.”
Over the past six months, BACCC has been completing several forms of policy analysis on behalf of the city.
Caramento said that included a review of different types of retrofit programs found in municipalities around the world and calculating anticipated changes in energy inputs, GHGs and utility bills for 12 common retrofit projects
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