Community Energy & Emissions Plan

The Community Energy and Emissions Plan (CEEP) is a long-term plan to meet Hamilton’s future energy needs while improving energy efficiency, reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and fostering local sustainable and community-supported energy solutions. The plan includes every aspect of city-wide energy use and GHG emissions, from homes to transportation to industry to waste.

The Community Energy and Emissions Plan Is the City's primary climate change mitigation document and seeks to reduce community-wide greenhouse gas emissions. Together with the City's Climate Change Impact Adaptation Plan, these two plans for the core of Hamilton's Climate Change Action Strategy that seeks to reduce the City's GHG emissions, while Increasing It's resilience to the Impacts of a changing climate.

In 2019, Hamilton City Council declared a Climate Change Emergency and directed Staff to identify and investigate actions to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. The Community Energy and Emissions Plan is a critical part of the City’s emergency response—it sets the path for getting to net-zero by 2050. The Plan will serve as a framework to transition Hamilton into a prosperous, equitable, post-carbon City.

How the plan will be developed

	1. Data Collection Energy use and emissions data will be gathered from across the City.
	2.Establishing the Baseline & Business-as-Planned Scenario A detailed baseline energy and emissions map of the city is developed first. Then energy and emissions are projected for the city through 2050. This is called a ‘business-as-planned’ scenario.
	3. Identifying Actions Actions will be considered for modeling and inclusion in the plan. Actions could include increased energy efficiency, use of renewable energy, sustainable transportation and green building practices, among others. Public consultation will assist in identifying priority actions.
	4. Modeling the Future After technical review and public engagement, a short list of low-carbon actions will be developed for future scenario modelling.
	5. Developing the Plan A final scenario and its associated actions will be developed into a draft plan. Details of how these actions should be implemented will be developed. Public engagement on the draft plan will occur.
	6. Final Plan The final draft plan will be presented to City Council for approval.

Project Update

The project is now in Stage 6 and the final plan will be presented to General Issues Committee on August 8, 2022 for approval.