Quote:
Originally Posted by CandleInTheDark
And how is the government going to magically get to 25% below 1990 levels, in a decade? What magic bullet do the NDP, or Liberals, have that they're not sharing? Will the Liberals uphold this bill if they get back to the government side of the house?
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I don't know if anyone said anything about using magic. I think the idea is to use research, technology, and specific development practices.
The Germans are committed to reducing theirs by 40% in the same time frame, and they currently have more than double the emissions than Canada. They're really aggressive on this, and I don't think it's even legislated. If anyone is a role model right now, it's the Germans—
Passivhaus and all that.
Consider how things have changed since the 1990s with regard to how the increased efficiency of automobiles. Now consider how much more room for improvement there is, and also consider the room for improvement with such things as public transit and civil engineering (and re-engineering) of large cities and small cities alike (read: Jane Jacobs).
Now also consider that buildings make up for a huge proportion of emissions. This is where we should focus. This is where the Germans are focusing. The way we design and build buildings, especially office towers, is absolutely ridiculous. Most office buildings built recently (and currently) are essentially hermetically sealed heatsinks. We need to rethink how we build things. We have the technology; now we need the will.