Step 1 > In the Community Info Section, input your community, community type then edit population growth, 2030 targets and Scenario as necessary. You will see graphs appear once this section is complete.
Step 2 > In the Big Moves Section, adjust the sliders for each big move from 0 (no change) to 100% (very ambitious actions). The graphs will adjust automatically. For additional context about each big move, expand the "Show Explanation ↓" button.
"BAU" = Business As Usual
Tip: Remember to use this tool in conjunction with the Climate Leaders Playbook – each of the sections below is a “Big Move” from the playbook, and the intent is to see how increasing or decreasing the level of ambition for each move could impact your community’s emissions, and how critical it is to meeting GHG reduction targets.
*this tool is for BC local governments to explore community-wide climate actions. For a detailed plan with community-specific assumptions, please contact CEA.
In the graphs below, "BAU" = Business As Usual
This interactive tool creates draft energy & emissions inventories for any local government or Islands Trust Area in BC, and allows you to conduct simplified modelling to see the effectiveness of implementing actions to meet GHG reduction targets.
Local government staff, elected officials and other stakeholders can use this tool to better understand what their community’s emissions are, and which actions will be most effective in reducing emissions and meeting targets.
Use this tool in conjunction with the Climate Leaders Playbook (“the Playbook”) https://bcclimateleaders.ca/. The Playbook identifies the practical tools and levers that local-government leaders have available to help them meet emissions reduction targets and describes each of the Big Moves in more detail.
After identifying the community-of-interest, the tool will automatically populate baseline data specific to that community. You then move through each Big Move section and adjust the sliders from 0-4 to change the “level of ambition”, from first steps to full deployment. In real-time this adjusts the graphs to show how effective that level of ambition is in meeting targets and its impact on community emissions.
When you have adjusted all the sliders, consider referring back to the Playbook for detailed information about the Big Moves and the actions that can be taken by local governments to drive down community energy and emissions.
The energy & emissions data is sourced from the Province of BC, from the releases of the community level buildings energy consumption and landfill emissions data, and from older releases of the Community Energy & Emissions Inventory data.
The default population growth data has been calculated from recent census years for each community, from BC Stats.
Energy prices and energy price projections are estimated from CEA’s experience and expertise.
The modelled impacts of the Big Moves have been calculated using CEA’s extensive experience estimating impacts of energy & emissions reduction initiatives in BC communities.
This climate action planner tool, and the modelling, should be considered draft and high level and the results do not replace a full Community Energy and Emissions Plan. However, this tool is useful to get a sense of where a community may be able to make the biggest impacts to reducing its emissions, and what GHG emission reduction targets it may be able to achieve by 2030. The simplified modelling used here has been created by sharply editing a much larger community energy & emissions modelling tool that CEA has developed and refined since 2010 and has used in over 65 communities across BC.
Note that there are many things that can influence the effectiveness of emission reducing initiatives for a community (e.g. climate, economy, disposable income of residents, levels of environmental awareness in the community, fuel availability, technology changes). It is not possible to create a simple tool that would account for all of these and in fact this tool is useful because it offers a simple wide lense for community leaders to consider. When CEA completes a Community Energy & Emissions Plan/Climate Action Plan for a community, we take a much deeper look at the community-specific factors influencing emissions, and tailor the action planning and modelling to reflect the local context. A full plan includes detailed actions and other information to guide implementation.
The territorial inventories created here match how the Province created the Community Energy & Emissions Inventories (CEEI) for BC communities (including estimates for transportation in all cases), and would also meet the criteria for FCM-ICLEI’s Partners for Climate Protection Community Milestone 1. Note that the inventories created by this tool do not contain the additional level of detail required by some other inventory methodologies (e.g. large industry, agriculture, forestry, other land use, air / marine / rail and non-road engines are all excluded), and neither do they include estimates for embodied carbon or consumption-based emissions.
Regarding the costs chart, a few things should be noted:
- Cost data is high-level, and in particular, there is uncertainty around future energy prices.
- Electricity and wood are almost GHG neutral, while the other energy sources have higher GHG’s and their GHG costs are externalized. Renewable versions of these fuels, such as renewable natural gas (RNG), or sustainably sourced ethanol or biodiesel, have higher prices than their fossil versions. E.g. in 2020 RNG costs about 50% more per unit than fossil natural gas. It is assumed in the chart above that the vast majority of natural gas delivered is fossil, or natural gas energy prices would be higher.
- Despite it having a cost per unit of energy that can be on the upper end of sources of energy, note that electricity can often be more effective per unit of energy at delivering a service than other forms of energy. E.g. electricity is about 4 times more efficient than gasoline at moving a vehicle, and if used in a heat pump can be around 2-4 times (depending on climate & technology) more efficient than other forms of energy at heating a building.
- In many scenarios a community’s expenditures on electricity could increase. This is due in part to fuel-switching from other fuels to electricity for heating our buildings (e.g. with heat pumps) and electrifying passenger transportation, and notwithstanding some electricity conservation that is incorporated in to some of the actions.
We are happy to answer questions about how to interpret the results of this tool and use it to guide further climate planning.
If you have any questions or are interested in expanding these preliminary results into more detailed inventory and modelling work, or a Community Energy & Emissions Plan / Climate Action Plan, please contact CEA.
Implementing the Big Moves
If you are interested in implementing any of these "big moves" in your community, CEA has funding in place to support communities with a wide range of initiatives - please get in touch. Further, please connect with us if you are interested in joining a peer-to-peer network for staff or elected officials.
The Climate Action Planner tool was designed and implemented by the Community Energy Association. We are grateful for partial funding contributed by BC Hydro.
