City of Saskatoon lays out bold climate change mitigation strategy

The City of Saskatoon is committing to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 80 per cent by 2050.

Using 2014 as a baseline — the city aims to go from generating 3.85 million tonnes of greenhouse gasses per year to 780,000 tonnes.

“It relies on a coordinated effort between the community and the city,” the city’s sustainability director Jeanna South said on Thursday.

“It’s an ambitious plan — it really touches almost everything that we do.”

The project has been in the works for more than a year. To determine if the long-term targets could be met, the city brought in external consultants to help create the plan.

It describes 40 actions for implementation, phased in over the course of 30 years — looking at different sectors like transit and infrastructure.

“If the actions are followed according to the time they’ve set up then we can achieve those targets by 2050,” South explained.

The strategy also outlines social and economic benefits, like improved health and more jobs.

The city believes the cost savings and revenue outweigh the investments in the long run.

“We do see our greenhouse gases going up considerably — we certainly see our energy costs going up,” South said.

“Much more variability and certainly more significant and impactful storm events.”

The plan will be presented to the environment, utilities and corporate services committee for consideration on Aug. 6.

“We look forward to discussing with council how they would like to proceed with the options placed out in front of them,” South said.

People can find out more about the action plan on the city’s website.