The City of Saint John sign is pictured in this file photo. Image: Brad Perry

The City of Saint John has made progress on its climate change action plan.

On Monday, city staff updated the common council regarding the plan’s progress, especially for the corporate/community energy greenhouse gas (GHG) and energy action plan.

Part of the plan includes a 30 per cent reduction in corporate GHG by 2025, and for the city to be carbon neutral by 2040.

“Since 2017, city staff has worked diligently to implement various energy measures, especially on municipal buildings, water facilities, and the transit fleet, as well we have developed a public transit and fleet green strategy to help us to transition to a low carbon economy,” mentioned Samir Yammine, asset and energy management manager for the City of Saint John.

The city has secured $7 million in grants from the federal, provincial, and other agencies toward the corporate energy GHG and energy action plan.

The municipality will also receive approximately 30,000 megawatt-hours (MWh) green credits, known as renewable energy certificates from the Burchill Project by 2023 toward corporate GHG emissions.

“So, as a result of this energy savings, and the measures we did on our fleet and so on, we are projecting to reduce our GHG emissions by 28 per cent by the end of 2022, so we are on target to meet our 2025 goal,” mentioned Yammine.

In terms of the community energy GHG energy action plan, Yammine mentioned the city hopes to reduce emissions by nine per cent by 2025, and 18 per cent by 2035.

“The city will continue to work with various stakeholders and energy providers for us to move our community to net zero by 2050.”

To reach these community goals, so far, the city’s common council has adopted the green zoning bylaw to encourage the development of large renewable energy projects, while city staff has created an implementation plan to address community GHG emissions.

As well, once the Burchill Wind Energy Project is operating it will help reduce community emissions as it will provide roughly 15 per cent of Saint John Energy’s electricity supply.

Yammine added that as a result of these community initiatives, city staff is projecting a 7 per cent reduction in community GHG emissions in 2023.

The City of Saint John plans to develop a Community Energy Action Plan Pathway over the coming years.