From its founding Ecology Ottawa has encouraged the City of Ottawa to work with citizens to both:
- do our fair share in reducing our city’s contribution to climate change; and
- plan for how the city will cope with the changes climate change is bringing.
Through 2011 and 2012 Ecology Ottawa worked with supportive city councillors and city staff and achieved several important milestones:
- the city’s GHG Inventory* had been hung-up in back offices until Ecology Ottawa prompted its release;
- that document would have been read into the record without debate but Ecology Ottawa influenced it to be discussed at Environment Committee;
- that discussion highlighted missed GHG reduction targets from past city climate change management plans and opened the opportunity to do something about it;
- Ecology Ottawa worked with supportive councillors to draft a motion which passed Environment Committee and full City Council to hold a GHG Roundtable;
- through 2012 when there was no evidence that the Roundtable was being organized Ecology Ottawa undertook a campaign to encourage the city to get on with it, until in late 2012 the Mayor promised it would happen in Q1 2013;
- still there was no public sense, nor any sense through private conversations with city staff or supportive councillors, that there was political will to take action on climate change.
See also these links on what you can do to fight climate change, the five point countdown:
#1 tell politicians it matters
Also, have you signed the Ottawa Climate Pledge?*GHG is shorthand for “greenhouse gas” – those emissions such as carbon dioxide (also known as CO2) and methane which, as their concentrations increase, are responsible for trapping more heat in earth’s atmosphere.
Latest posts
Ecology Ottawa urges protection of Ottawans from Idling Pollution
Ottawa City Council's Environment and Climate Change and Emergency Preparedness and Protective Services Committees met today to discuss staff recommendations for amendments to the City's Idling Control By-law. Ecology Ottawa made a delegation, supporting the recommendations and adding a few of our own to better reduce our GHG emissions and Ottawans' health—especially that of our most vulnerable.
Stop Harmful Idling Emissions!
As part of their review of the Idling By-law, Ottawa City staff have issued new recommendations for the By-law. These recommendations come to a joint meeting of the Environment and Climate Change and the Emergency Preparedness and Protective Services Committees this Thursday. Here’s what you need to know!
Ecology Ottawa delegates on Budget 2025 Directions: Where are the Strategic Priorities?
Ottawa Council's Finance and Corporate Services Committee considered the Directions for the City's 2025 budget this morning. Ecology Ottawa was there, calling out the Directions' failure to respond to the crises—climate, biodiversity, housing affordability, addictions—facing Ottawans, as well as their failure to incorporate any of the City's Strategic Priorities. You can watch our delegation or read it below.