Canada: Metro Vancouver endorses plan for carbon-neutral agriculture by 2050
Agricultural land, which makes up 20% of Metro Vancouver’s land base, faces a number of threats from climate change, including extreme flooding, shifting temperatures and rainfall patterns, and new pests.
By Stefan Labbé
North Shore News
Sept 7, 2023
Excerpt:
A road map to protect agricultural land across Metro Vancouver was endorsed by the regional body’s climate action committee Thursday, in a move that paves the way to protect existing agricultural land and push the sector to be carbon neutral by 2050.
The latest plan is among 10 climate road maps Metro staff has developed to target emissions from transportation, buildings, industry and waste, among other sectors. But the plan did not escape criticism.
Metro director and Vancouver Coun. Adriene Carr said she worried the current agricultural plan was being informed by a lack of data — particularly zero-emissions data from the the area’s greenhouses.
“I don’t know how we achieve getting to our goals, if we aren’t measuring where we’re at now,” Carr said.
Metro staff responded saying it is working on the problem.
Alison Gu, a councillor from Burnaby, raised concerns Metro’s current regulatory practices continued to allow the elimination of agricultural land.
