Item - 2024.IE18.8

The Infrastructure and Environment Committee recommend that:

1. City Council to receive the report (November 13, 2024) from the Executive Director, Environment and Climate for information.

In May 2023, City Council adopted a new Climate Change Goals and Governance chapter for the Municipal Code.¹ This chapter sets emission budgets outlining the total amount of greenhouse gas emissions from both Community and Corporate sources² over a set period that is consistent with Council-adopted greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets. The Corporate emissions budget is set at 2,016,471 tonnes carbon dioxide equivalent (~2 Megatonnes) for the period 2026 - 2030. This enables the City to allocate and manage sector-specific emissions budgets for Corporate Buildings³ and Transportation⁴ sectors and track progress through comparing emissions "spending" with the remaining budget, akin to financial budgets.

The Executive Director, Environment and Climate, acting as designate for the City Manager under the Climate Change Goals and Governance chapter, and considering the opinions of Corporate Real Estate Management, Toronto Community Housing Corporation, Fleet Services, and the Toronto Transit Commission (collectively "Corporate Sector Leaders"),⁵ recommends emission budgets for Corporate Buildings and Transportation (i.e. fleet vehicles) amounting to 935,641 and 829,719 tonnes carbon dioxide equivalent, or a ratio of 1.1:1 when comparing the two subsectors. This aligns with the trend in the ratio of emissions from Corporate Buildings and Fleet vehicles in the City's annual Sector-Based Emissions Inventory ("Inventory") over 2018 - 2021. In the City's most recent Inventory covering the 2021 year, Corporate emissions were split 43 percent from buildings, 40 percent from transportation, and 17 percent from waste. Within buildings, 56 percent of emissions came from Toronto Community Housing Corporation buildings and 44 percent from "City Facilities and Buildings" under capital control of various divisions and agencies including Corporate Real Estate Management, Parks, Forestry and Recreation and Toronto Transit Commission among others. Within transportation, 70 percent of emissions came from Toronto Transit Commission buses, 4 percent from Toronto Transit Commission subways and streetcars, and the remainder from fleet vehicles under capital control of divisions and agencies including Fleet Services and Toronto Police Service among others.

This recommendation is subject to adjustment pending ongoing work to refine the accounting of Corporate emissions in the Inventory, in particular the organization of emission sources into the correct subsectors. Environment and Climate is committed to working from the Corporate Sector Leaders over the rest of 2024 and early 2025 to make any necessary refinements. If this work results in changes to the Inventory that would necessitate changes to the emission budgets for Corporate Buildings and Transportation recommended in this report, a new recommendation would be brought to Council for consideration.

By the end of the second quarter 2025, plans for the key actions to reduce emissions from Corporate Buildings and Transportation in line with the recommended emissions budgets will be brought to Council as part of the Net Zero Strategy Action Plan for 2026-30. These plans will also set out the needs, risks and dependencies for those actions.

¹ 2023.IE3.4 - Carbon Accountability: Institutionalizing Governance, a Carbon Budget and an Offset Credits Policy.
² Corporate emissions are those from the City government's own operations. The Corporate emissions budget applies to emissions from Corporate buildings and fleet vehicles (including Toronto Transit Commission revenue vehicles).
³ Includes City-owned buildings, facilities, and certain yards plus Toronto Community Housing-owned buildings.
⁴ Includes fleet vehicles operated by Fleet Services Division, Toronto Transit Commission (including revenue and non-revenue), Toronto Police Service, Toronto Fire Services, Toronto Paramedic Services, Toronto Community Housing, Exhibition Place, Toronto Zoo, Toronto Parking Authority, and Toronto Public Library.
⁵ Climate Change Goals and Governance, Municipal Code Ch. 669, at § 669-2.3(A)(6).