Climate emergency declaration to be Gondek's first motion as mayor


Mayor Jyoti Gondek is making good on her promise for Calgary to join other cities in declaring a climate emergency.

© Provided by Calgary Herald Mayor Jyoti Gondek speaks with the media outside Calgary Council Chamber on Monday, November 1, 2021.

The newly elected mayor’s notice of motion is on Tuesday’s agenda for the first meeting of council’s new executive committee. If the committee gives the proposal technical approval, it will be up for debate at the first regular council meeting on Nov. 15.

The city’s current climate resilience strategy aims for Calgary’s emissions to be 80 per cent lower than the 2005 levels by 2050, a target that many have said falls short . Gondek’s motion specifies that in addition to declaring a climate emergency, the City of Calgary environmental plan would be updated to aim for net-zero emissions by 2050. That’s the worldwide target to stop adding heat-trapping carbon emissions to the atmosphere and limit global warming to 1.5 C , therefore averting even more catastrophic environmental impacts.

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Gondek’s motion outlines how the need to address climate change is clear, considering Alberta has seen several of the costliest natural disasters in the country over the past five years.

“Amongst large and mid-sized Canadian cities, Calgary is one of the few without a climate emergency declaration, compromising our city’s ability to compete for global capital and talent.”

City councils in Ottawa, Vancouver, Toronto and Edmonton — among many others — have voted in recent years to declare climate emergencies. But after Edmonton made the move in 2019, there was little motivation from Calgary city councillors to do the same.

City officials fielded internal inquiries about such a declaration from at least one council member, but some former councillors pointed out the city already has a climate resilience strategy, adding they worried about straying outside the city’s mandate or potentially being “overly dramatic.”

At the time, when Coun. Sean Chu was asked whether there was interest in declaring a climate emergency, he said, “Over my dead body.”

Now that council has almost entirely turned over, and with Gondek making the issue one of her first priorities as mayor, the conversation in city hall may look very different.

The motion calls for planning and budgeting across city departments to pursue emissions reductions and opportunities to lower climate risk. Civic partner organizations and city wholly owned subsidiaries would also be required to align with the net-zero by 2050 goal, and the city would advocate for funding from other levels of government to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions and mitigate risk from natural disasters driven by climate change.

Former Calgary Emergency Management Agency chief Tom Sampson said in 2019 he was uncertain about the utility of declaring a climate emergency, but said if the city ever made the move, there should be a clear sense of its purpose. CEMA has identified climate change as a significant risk to the city, and it’s a factor in major disasters like the 2013 floods.

Gondek has spoken about the climate emergency declaration numerous times since last month’s municipal vote, from election night to her address at the Calgary Economic Development annual economic outlook event.

A few days after the election, Gondek said the move is about more than making a symbolic statement.

“Symbolism doesn’t get you results,” she said, adding she wants to send a clear message about Calgary’s pursuit of innovation and technology that supports responsible and sustainable energy production.

“I have been elected to make sure our city receives the capital it deserves. That’s how you go about getting it: by taking these things seriously.”