It is not enough: How successful communities fight Climate Change- Rob Kerr
eMERGE Guelph was delighted to host Rob Kerr as he shared strategies on how other successful Ontario communities are driving climate and energy action. He showed us how to reach ambitious climate targets by establishing the necessary building blocks.
This event was part of two separate webinars that are designed to embrace solutions and mitigate the challenges faced by communities in our fight against climate change. Part 2 will feature Dr. Karen Farbridge sharing best practices across Canada and around the world on Wednesday, Sep 23 .
Register here for Dr. Karen Farbridge event next week.
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A recording of the Webinar can be found on our Youtube Channel here!
The slide deck for this webinar is now available here.
Overview
The shock of the COVID-19 pandemic provides an excellent opportunity to transition to low-carbon, energy efficient communities through the use of stimulus funding and legislation.
Well over 400 communities in Canada, and over 50 in Ontario, have completed Community Energy Plans. Many of them are now demonstrating continuing implementation efforts driven by aggressive GHG (greenhouse gas) and energy efficiency targets coupled with community demands for climate emergency declarations.
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About Rob Kerr
Rob’s 40-year career focuses on transitioning society to a low carbon economy while reducing the impacts of climate change. He does this through policy development and implementation of projects and programs in the municipal and community space.
To get there, he wears many hats including: Senior Associate with QUEST, Canada’s leading organization in advocating for Smart Energy Communities, Managing Director of Garforth International Canada Inc. and his independent consultancy – Robert J. Kerr + Associates.
His work experience has been a balance between the private and public sector, having worked with the Honeywell, Hydro Quebec, Toronto Hydro Energy Services Inc., and Energy Advantage. Rob has held senior positions at ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability providing policy and program support to cities around the world committed to mitigation and adaptation activities related to climate change. There, he developed expertise in managing inter-governmental relationships – from his advocacy work at the global level (starting with the UN Climate Conference in Kyoto, Japan in 1997) – to ongoing advisory relationships with the Canadian federal and provincial governments as well as the Federation of Canadian Municipalities. He has also worked with the cities of Mississauga and of course Guelph.
