Climate Change Master Plan
Peel Region will be a leader in the community to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and to ensure its services, operations, and infrastructure are resilient to the impacts of climate change.
The Climate Change Master Plan is comprised of 20 actions and 66 activities that will set forth the direction for how Peel Region will lead by example through the management of Regional assets, infrastructure, and services in a changing climate. Over the next decade, it will also verify what's necessary to support the community as it transforms in response to climate change. In doing so, the master plan will complement and support efforts of partners in the broader community.
Peel Region will lead the community in cutting greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and ensure that its services, operations, and infrastructure can handle the effects of climate change.
The Peel Region Climate Change Master Plan (CCMP):
- Provides the approach to how Peel Region will respond to its climate emergency declaration.
- Will support and work alongside the efforts of community partners.
- Joins together municipalities across Ontario’s call for greater action in response to climate change.
Plan outcomes, actions, and activities
The CCMP’s 20 actions and 66 activities will guide how Peel Region manages its assets, infrastructure, and services in a changing climate over the next 10 years. They will also identify what is needed to help the community adapt to climate change.
Explore an overview of the plan outcomes, actions, and activities.
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Peel has experienced a number of significant weather-related events over the last decade, including (amongst others) a record-breaking rainfall in July 2013 that resulted in widespread flooding and an ice storm in December 2013 that resulted in severe tree damage and power outages for several days.
These events resulted in negative health impacts, damage to property, disruption in critical infrastructure systems, business and service interruptions, and limited mobility and access to services.
In Peel, these types of impacts are projected to increase in variability, frequency, and intensity.
The most significant climate impacts to Peel will be from higher average temperatures, increases in heat waves, increases in rainfall, and more extreme weather events.
This is expected to negatively impact the following areas:
- Increased health impacts and reduced staff productivity.
- Growing demands on public health, paramedic, and emergency management services.
- Increased energy use and vulnerability of the electricity supply.
- Rising financial costs and liabilities Increased pressure on operations and maintenance.
- Increased impacts to natural systems.
Peel Region’s responsibility to address climate change is based on the imperative to reduce GHG emissions and the ability to maintain the delivery of services in the face of current and projected climatic changes.
This is consistent with how the Municipal Act empowers local government as leaders in the community, tasked with accountability and transparent decision making that has the well-being of the municipality at its core, including respecting and responding to the threat of climate change.
As much as climate change presents risks, there are also inherent opportunities.
Actions which reduce GHG emissions and increase resilience can also result in co-benefits. These include:
- Creating vibrant walkable cityscapes through sustainable urban design.
- Improving mental health outcomes.
- Improving public health outcomes, particularly among vulnerable populations.
- Reducing regional operating and capital costs and avoiding future costs from economic losses.
- Spurring the local economy, generating jobs and attracting top talent.
- Protecting the local environment, cleaning the air, and water.
To fully realize many of these co-benefits and ensure future investments are on-track to meet longer term and deeper carbon reduction targets, experts in the energy sector are in agreement that diversification in energy sources (renewables, biofuel and, for now, natural gas) and decentralized energy systems (also known as district energy or community energy) are part of the required response to stay on track with the global agreement to meet the 1.5 C threshold.
Climate change is the defining challenge of our time.
Our organization recognizes the urgency of this challenge and will take bold action.
Peel Region is experiencing the impacts of climate change. Anticipated future impacts, including severe heat waves, threats to the water supply, extreme storms, and adverse health effects, could disrupt society and the economy.
Municipalities around the world are stepping forward with strategies that identify ambitious targets to reduce or eliminate GHG emissions and protect their populations from the impacts of climate change.
In 2017, Peel Region Council unanimously endorsed a Climate Change Statement of Commitment directing Peel Region to develop a climate change master plan.
With the Climate Change Master Plan (CCMP), Peel Region will:
- Demonstrate leadership in its own operations, while supporting community climate action.
- Prioritize resources, policies, and initiatives that facilitate this transformation.
- Be a leader in the community to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and to ensure its services, operations, and infrastructure are resilient to the impacts of climate change.
These combined efforts will enable Peel Region’s vision of building a Community for Life, where everyone enjoys a sense of belonging and has access to the services and opportunities they need to thrive throughout each stage of their lives.