Victoria bans the construction of homes heated with natural gas
By Cosmin Dzsurdzsa
Victoria councillors have banned the construction of homes that rely on fossil fuels like natural gas for heating after the year 2025.
This week, city councillors touted its “zero carbon” policy, which will require all future developments to be heated using renewable energy only.
“Buildings account for nearly half of all greenhouse gas pollution generated in the city,” Victoria Mayor Lisa Helps said in a statement.
“Each new building will last more than 50 years, so raising the bar now is critical to meeting our long-term climate goals, and to preparing the taxpayers of the future to have less climate-related costs down the road.”
Supporters of the policy claim that it will reduce greenhouse gasses by 80%. However, during consultations, developers cited concerns that the appropriate equipment and service providers were not readily available and that there wasn’t enough access to electricity.