City points to increase in landfill waste, water treatment for higher 2024 greenhouse-gas emissions

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Winnipeg’s municipal government created more greenhouse gases last year, despite a key target to achieve net zero emissions by 2050.

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Winnipeg’s municipal government created more greenhouse gases last year, despite a key target to achieve net zero emissions by 2050.

In 2024, City of Winnipeg operations created 319,811 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions, up 3.9 per cent — or 12,034 tonnes — from the previous year. The figure counts pollution created by the municipal government’s buildings, vehicles, equipment, water and waste infrastructure and streetlights, not overall community-wide emissions.

A city report notes a few key causes for the increase.

Mike Deal / Free Press Files
                                Crews process waste at Brady Road Resource Management Facility in 2023. An increase in landfill waste is a key factor in the increase in greenhouse gas emissions produced by the City of Winnipeg in 2024 according to city officials.

Mike Deal / Free Press Files

Crews process waste at Brady Road Resource Management Facility in 2023. An increase in landfill waste is a key factor in the increase in greenhouse gas emissions produced by the City of Winnipeg in 2024 according to city officials.

“The single greatest contributing factor to this was an increase in landfilled waste. There was also more total wastewater treated,” writes Becky Raddatz, manager of the city’s office of sustainability, in the report.

The increased pollution comes as the city continues its climate action plan, which aims to greatly reduce emissions.

Mayor Scott Gillingham said work is already underway to reduce emissions further in the future and a short-term increase isn’t surprising.

“We have grown by 71,000 people in the last three years. An increase in population in a city also results in an increase in emissions as well,” said Gillingham. “Of course, we never want to see the numbers of overall emissions going up.”

The mayor noted the city is working on a building emissions-reduction strategy, which council will consider funding next year. The city has also improved energy efficiency in some buildings, including the recently completed Windsor Park fire paramedic station, and is working to improve methane gas recovery at its main landfill, he said.

“There’s a lot of work that is being done across many departments to reduce the city’s greenhouse-gas emissions and energy use,” he said.

The mayor said the city intends to pursue the net zero emissions target by 2050.

In an interview, Raddatz said emissions largely increased last year due to a surge in construction, demolition and renovation waste at the landfill, where trash produces gas. Meanwhile, wet weather led to increased wastewater and rainwater entering water treatment plants, a higher volume that required more energy to treat, she said.

Raddatz noted emissions can fluctuate each year due to many different factors.

“We expect variability in the emissions…. The city is really working on preparing… changes in city operations that will then lead to a change in emissions and energy,” she said.

In addition to building efficiency targets, the city is continuing its zero-emission bus program, through which it plans to add 90 green buses by the end of next year.

Raddatz said civic efforts to attract infill home construction in established neighbourhoods, which would offer residents shorter commutes to many workplaces, should also help reduce emissions.

Coun. Ross Eadie, the head of council’s water and waste committee, acknowledged meeting the city’s 2050 net-zero emissions goal could be a challenge. He said doing so would likely require more spending on green initiatives.

“I don’t know how much money it would cost to get the net zero,” said Eadie (Mynarski).

He noted the city budget is tight, in part because the city needs to complete billions of dollars of sewage treatment upgrades.

The municipal government’s operating emissions are only a small part what is produced overall in the city, so it’s important to ensure the government also helps Winnipeggers make low-emission choices, according to an environmental advocate.

“The city potentially could help to enable… new, efficient ways to heat our buildings with electricity as opposed to with fossil gas, and ways to get off our reliance on single-passenger automobiles for transportation,” said Curt Hull, a project director with Climate Change Connection.

Hull said the plan to add zero-emission buses is a good step in the right direction, which will require the city to set up infrastructure that supports green vehicles.

He said all governments must focus on combating climate change, as global temperatures continue to rise, which could lead to even worse forest fire seasons in the future.

“The science tells us we’re at very great risk of an irreversible tipping point,” said Hull.

joyanne.pursaga@freepress.mb.ca

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Joyanne Pursaga

Joyanne Pursaga
Reporter

Joyanne is city hall reporter for the Winnipeg Free Press. A reporter since 2004, she began covering politics exclusively in 2012, writing on city hall and the Manitoba Legislature for the Winnipeg Sun before joining the Free Press in early 2020. Read more about Joyanne.

Every piece of reporting Joyanne produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.

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