You can’t keep a good climate solution down

Though it may not feel like it, especially coming out of last week’s “deplorable” COP29 negotiations, climate solutions are, in fact, all around us. This week, I’ve barely been able to log on to our team chat without seeing another story pitch about a climate solution in Canada, whether to do with the staggering rollout of solar power in big cities and tiny communities alike, the change in mobility away from cars, the impressive potential for heat pumps, or (a personal favourite) the occasionally goofy world of tidal power, where part of the problem is there’s just too much energy. 

I love these stories. They get me thinking about the potential for small, out-of-the-way places to experience energy abundance and reliability of the kind city dwellers take for granted. Reading about bike lanes and walkable neighbourhoods reminds me of how much quieter, safer and more accessible many of our urban areas are getting every day — and what that increasingly means for families like that of my brother, who, thanks to a new bike-priority street, can bike my nieces and nephew to school every day. Reading about new building technologies like heat pumps gets me excited for the already-arriving future where nudging the thermostat isn’t a guilt-inducing act for either environmental or financial reasons. 

But most of all, I love reading about how despite the best efforts of some politicians, corporations, pundits and other bad-faith actors, solutions just keep coming. When they do, people fight to protect them — but in some cases, like solar power, we don’t even need to fight because the economic incentives to create them are so strong. 

Many of the revolutions so badly needed in electricity, mobility, buildings and more are, to a certain degree, self-propelling. It’s more comfortable to have an insulated home. It’s more fun and healthier to ride a bike or an e-bike to work. It’s cheaper, now, to install solar than build a coal plant. The list goes on: the green future can be abundant, not diminished or parsimonious. 

That’s not to say there’s not a battle left to fight. Even as people are realizing the joys of bike lanes, for example, Ontario just passed Bill 212 to rip them out for the convenience of drivers — who, it should be pointed out, won’t actually benefit because that’s not how traffic works. In Alberta, the government has spent two years stomping on the nascent wind and solar industries, just as it was becoming the country’s renewable-energy capital. 

But just as governments can and do stifle climate solutions, they can support them as well, if voters demand it. During the pandemic, Lima, Peru added 100 kilometres of new bike lanes. The share of people riding bikes doubled in four years. Closer to home (much closer, in my case) similar efforts have had similar results: after Victoria invested in 25 kilometres of new bike lanes over five years, 13 per cent of people are now riding their bikes wherever they need to go. I can already hear the keyboards clattering — yes, both Lima and Victoria have relatively warm climates. Well, skeptical letter-writer, how do you feel about the weather in Hamilton? A study this year found that a whopping 47 per cent of the city’s bike trips using a local bike share were induced by the presence of a shiny new bike lane — and more than a quarter of the people riding in that area signed up for the bike share after the bike lane was built. 

There are also positive feedback loops that emerge with these positive changes. The first step makes the next easier, cheaper, and more intuitive. Take the changes to city planning happening all across the country: space for vehicles is a very expensive part of a new building, and roads are insanely expensive to maintain. 

So, what if there were less parking? That means more buyers of this more affordable housing are encouraged to go car-free. Since there are now more people living in these denser places, there’s a critical mass for transit systems (more fare-paying riders) and for bike lanes (more commuters and voters to stand up for them). Fewer people have to drive every day, freeing up road space for those who do, like contractors, emergency services or delivery drivers. Local businesses thrive from the foot traffic. Cities get more in property taxes, and have more money to spend on more of all of the amenities they need to make those denser places a good place to live. 

The intention here is not to blunt your frustration or your apprehension about escalating extreme weather, half-hearted negotiations or viral misinformation. Believe me, I feel it too. And many of the problems we’re faced with, like the extinction crisis, don’t have the benefit of positive feedback loops and need direct, sometimes costly action. 

But we all need the reminder that many of the changes needed to respond to the climate crisis aren’t a matter of giving something up, but getting something new: a better commute, a more comfortable home or a healthier life. That’s a fight anyone can sign up for.