OUR ENERGY AND EMISSIONS
What is the Township of Langley’s
Current Energy Consumption and GHG Emissions?
Understanding our current energy use and emissions is the first step in identifying ways to reduce energy use and emissions. It helps us become aware of how much we emit and where our emissions come from. With this information, we can set targets and develop actions to reduce our energy consumption and GHG emissions.
In 2007, Township of Langley residents and businesses spent over $230 million on energy to keep our community’s buildings and vehicles running. This represents approximately $2,300 per Township of Langley resident annually. The use of this energy plus the emissions produced by our agricultural practices and our garbage in landfills created 820,000 tonnes of CO2e1. The figure below shows these emissions by sector.
 |
- Buildings: 41% of Langley’s GHG emissions are from:
- Heating and cooling homes and commercial and industrial buildings
- Electricity to light and power these residences and facilities.
- GHGs from homes account for almost half of building emissions
- A typical home in Langley uses 30% more electricity than the average home in the Lower Mainland. This is because Langley homes are typically larger than the average home.
- Transportation: 53% of Langley’s GHG emissions are from energy used by vehicles driven to and from Langley.
- 80% of transportation emissions are emitted from passenger vehicles
- 84% of all trips made in Langley are made in motor vehicles; the remaining 16% trips are made by foot, transit, and bikes
- 40% of the kilometres driven are commuting to and from work; 39% of the kilometres driven are transporting our children to and from school
- Solid Waste: 1% of Langley’s emissions are from GHGs released from garbage in our landfills. Waste does not directly consume energy but when deposited into landfills, it decomposes and releases methane gas which is more damaging to the environment than carbon dioxide.
- Agriculture: 5% of Langley’s emissions are from GHGs produced by livestock raised on our farms2. Methane gas is released by animals as they digest their food and from manure decomposition.
How Does the Township of Langley’s Emissions
Compare to Other Communities?
The Township of Langley emits 8.2 tonnes of CO2e per person. This is above average for the Lower Mainland. Langley’s per capita emissions are well below BC’s average; however, the provincial average includes industrial emissions.
What will the Township of Langley’s Emissions be in 2031?
The population of the Township is expected to grow from about 100,000 to 160,000 in the next 30 years. Our community’s emissions will grow rapidly if we continue to live our lives in a similar pattern to how we currently live. As illustrated in the graph below, our emissions are projected to increase from our current emissions by 250,000 tonnes CO2e by the year 2031.
The Challenge
Our challenge as a community is to reduce our energy consumption and GHG emissions.
- How much can we reduce?
- What will our GHG emissions targets be?
- What actions will we take to achieve our targets?
Langley’s CEEP planning process will answer these questions by setting reduction targets for Langley and identifying actions we can take to achieve these targets.
1 Carbon dioxide equivalent. A CO2e is a measure used to compare the emissions from various greenhouse gases based on their global warming potential. For example, the global warming potential for methane over 100 years is 21. This means that emissions of one million metric tons of methane is equivalent to emissions of 21 million metric tons of carbon dioxide. (OECD glossary)
2 This figure includes only animals and livestock. Other activities such as tillage and soil management practices may create GHG emissions or capture GHG, however, these are not currently estimated.
All per capita emissions illustrated in the figure include emissions from residential and commercial buildings, transportation, and solid waste (industrial emissions are not included, except for the provincial average).