Calgary’s pollution worse than New York’s
Posted Apr 6, 2010 2:02 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
A new study by the United Nations says Calgary is one of the biggest polluters on the planet.
The report examined greenhouse gas emissions on a per capita basis in several cities worldwide.
Calgary’s numbers were even worse than in Mexico City, Tokyo and New York.
However, a number of intiatives have been launched and in rather short order, the city believes we won’t be among the top 10.
The reason Calgary produces so much carbon dioxide is because almost half of our electricity grid is powered by coal.
Alderman Brian Pincott tells 660News changes are in the works. He says in a couple of years 100% of Calgary operations will be green
“Primarily wind-powered and anything that isn’t wind-powered is going to have carbon offsets, which means that for the city of Calgary by 2012 it’s going to have reduced its greenhouse gas emissions by 60% from 1990 levels,” he says.
Pincott adds Enmax, the city’s electricity utility, is also working on reducing it’s dependence on coal, shifting to the much cleaner-burning fuel of natural gas.
As part of the Planet Calgary project, there will be higher density development and more of a push to reduce our reliance on the automobile.
