Opinion: By staying the course on the ban of natural gas for heating in new homes, city council will protect families from the forced trade-off between our health and climate action
On Nov. 26, Vancouver city council will vote to decide whether to stick with its climate-forward decision to eliminate “natural” gas for space and water heating in new buildings, or continue with the surprise reversal proposed by Coun. Brian Montague in July. By reversing a good decision to prohibit gas in new construction, the council would be reducing the number of healthy homes that will be built in our city. This will hurt families who want electric homes to protect our kids from gas appliances and global warming.
As parents facing both the harms of a changing climate and a housing shortage, our greatest desire is for affordable homes that do not rely on fossil fuels, in walkable neighbourhoods close to schools and other necessary amenities.
The elimination of gas from our homes is not only good for our health and our pocketbooks, it is essential to combatting climate change. The clear scientific consensus is that we must phase out fossil fuels within a few years to avert the worst impacts of climate change, and this cannot be done if we continue to build new fossil fuel infrastructure.
The availability of electric homes is still limited in the city. For those of us already living in one, we enjoy good air quality and effective heating and cooling in winter and summer. Efficient heat pump cooling is becoming much more important as temperatures reach new highs in the summer. But with limited electric homes available, choosing these benefits becomes a trade-off with other considerations such as proximity to schools and kid-friendly amenities.
For families left out of the limited availability of electric homes, we face the additional anxiety of exposing our children to health harms while feeding and keeping them warm using natural gas appliances. As the summers get hotter from global warming and natural gas furnaces do not provide cooling, we are left with the additional costs of energy-intensive air conditioning units. The high costs of retrofits are simply not an option for many Vancouver families who own their homes and are off the table entirely for the majority of families in this city who are renters.
Fortunately, the building industry is ready for electric homes. A recent industry survey concluded that more than 70 per cent of respondents had no or little difficulty meeting the gas ban, and found that it provided them with a competitive advantage.
By staying the course on the natural gas ban, city council will protect our families from the forced trade-off between costs, our health and climate action. With both the building industry and our families ready for home electrification, all council needs to do is ensure the fossil fuel industry’s lobbying efforts do not get in the way. We are hopeful that council will maintain the gas ban, which was the right decision in the first place.