Toronto: 2020 Sector-based Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions Inventory, which tracks Toronto’s progress towards its GHG reduction targets were released today by the City of Toronto released.
The GHG Emissions Inventory also identifies direct and indirect GHG emissions from three key sectors: buildings, transportation, and waste.
Toronto’s community-wide emissions in 2020 were 43 percent lower than in 1990, which exceeds the City’s 2020 target of a 30 percent reduction.
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 releases its Sector-based GHG Emissions Inventory on a two-year lag cycle. To ensure the best available data, the City 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 percent by 2025 and 65 percent 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, totaling 58 percent of community-wide emissions, an increase of two percent over 2019.
Waste sector emissions, primarily from landfills, comprised roughly nine percent of community-wide emissions.
City of Toronto corporate emissions, or local government emissions, decreased by roughly 15 percent compared to 2019 and continued to account for about five percent of community-wide emissions.
In November 2022, the City of 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 is run by CDP (formerly Carbon Disclosure Project), an environmental impact non-profit organization.
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