Articles & Long Notices
General News · 9th November 2009
Cortes Climate Action Team
The Cortes Climate Action Team was formed by the Regional Director to recommend projects to reduce Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions on Cortes Island.
The team's responsibilities include a baseline GHG inventory, present the emissions inventory to the community and get input on actions for emissions reduction projects, and finally produce a report to the Strathcona Regional District, on best GHG emission reduction projects.
Cortes GHG emissions are summarized in the above chart.
You can read the complete report describing the rationale, assumptions and details here:
http://www.cortescommunityplan.ca/?page_id=94
The next step in this process is the Community Consultation to present the inventory and get community ideas about reducing our emissions.
This meeting will take place on December 1st. Details will be announced shortly.
The team's responsibilities include a baseline GHG inventory, present the emissions inventory to the community and get input on actions for emissions reduction projects, and finally produce a report to the Strathcona Regional District, on best GHG emission reduction projects.
Cortes GHG emissions are summarized in the above chart.
You can read the complete report describing the rationale, assumptions and details here:
http://www.cortescommunityplan.ca/?page_id=94
The next step in this process is the Community Consultation to present the inventory and get community ideas about reducing our emissions.
This meeting will take place on December 1st. Details will be announced shortly.
Add 3 tonnes for flying
Comment by Barry Saxifrage on 14th November 2009
My conservative, low-ball calculations for Cortes jet travel emissions is around 3 tonnes. That is bigger than any other area except land transportation.
So far, the powers that be have intentionally excluded jet travel emissions from all ghg inventories including the BC inventory, Canada's inventory and even Kyoto ghg inventories. Jet fuel is also untaxed while road and marine fuels are heavily taxed. Ever wonder why flying is so cheap?
But all that is about to change. The EU will soon force airlines to report and join cap-and-trade. It is likely that airline emissions will be part of successor to Kyoto as well.
What all this means is that the huge cuts in fossil fuel use that we all must do very soon will have to include jet travel emissions. If a society relies on jet travel and hasn't planned for it to be restricted it will find itself in trouble.
Planning now for fossil fuel restrictions will yield far more hopeful and prosperous future.
One of the biggest economic engines on Cortes is tourism. The great GHG summary that the CCAT just finished goes the extra mile to include "imported food" and "imported construction materials" that we rely upon. What it left out is "imported tourism" emissions.
My rough calculations are that Cortes gets around 10,000 tourists a year. If just 10% of these average a cross country flight it adds 2.5 tonnes per capita. When you add on vacations by residents out of the country it adds at least another half tonne.
We live in a mecca for high-ghg tourism. We should be planning for how to maintain a strong tourism sector in the coming ghg-limited era.
My conservative, low-ball calculations for Cortes jet travel emissions is around 3 tonnes. That is bigger than any other area except land transportation.
So far, the powers that be have intentionally excluded jet travel emissions from all ghg inventories including the BC inventory, Canada's inventory and even Kyoto ghg inventories. Jet fuel is also untaxed while road and marine fuels are heavily taxed. Ever wonder why flying is so cheap?
But all that is about to change. The EU will soon force airlines to report and join cap-and-trade. It is likely that airline emissions will be part of successor to Kyoto as well.
What all this means is that the huge cuts in fossil fuel use that we all must do very soon will have to include jet travel emissions. If a society relies on jet travel and hasn't planned for it to be restricted it will find itself in trouble.
Planning now for fossil fuel restrictions will yield far more hopeful and prosperous future.
One of the biggest economic engines on Cortes is tourism. The great GHG summary that the CCAT just finished goes the extra mile to include "imported food" and "imported construction materials" that we rely upon. What it left out is "imported tourism" emissions.
My rough calculations are that Cortes gets around 10,000 tourists a year. If just 10% of these average a cross country flight it adds 2.5 tonnes per capita. When you add on vacations by residents out of the country it adds at least another half tonne.
We live in a mecca for high-ghg tourism. We should be planning for how to maintain a strong tourism sector in the coming ghg-limited era.