Welcome | Mobilize Toronto

On October 8, 2018 the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released a report (SR15) which confirms that keeping global temperatures from increasing below 1.5 degrees C is critical.

According to the report: "Human–induced warming has already reached about 1°C above pre-industrial levels at the time of writing of this Special Report. By the decade 2006–2015, human activity had warmed the world by 0.87°C (±0.12°C) compared pre-industrial times (1850–1900). If the current warming rate continues, the world would reach human–induced global warming of 1.5°C around 2040."

Our mission is to have Toronto’s Climate Emergency Declaration achieve net-zero emissions by 2025 by mobilizing citizens, politicians, communities and groups.

Toronto City Council's emissions reduction targets are documented in the TransformTO plan (pdf). These targets are based on Toronto's 1990 emissions: 30% by 2020; 65% by 2030; Net zero by 2050, or sooner. In the Paris Agreement, Canada pledged to aim to keep global temperature increases well below 2 degrees C and to aim to keep them below 1.5 degrees C.

According to the IPCC for a likely chance of remaining around 1.5^oC the global carbon budget is 420 GtCO2e,

Toronto's share of the global population is 0.03% so the population-share of the global carbon budget is approximately 160 MtCO₂e and will be exceeded by 2033.

Toronto's share of global emissons is 0.05% so the emissions-share of the global carbon budget is 260 MtCO₂e and will be exceeded by 2042.

The chart below was generated by Climate Action Now and the calculations that generated it (and others) can be examined here.

Letter to Toronto's City Divisions

In May 2020, MobilizeTO sent a letter and our recommendations to the City Divisions of Environment and Energy, Toronto Building, Infrastructure and Development Services, Financial Planning, Transportation plus a few councillors asking them to not forget that climate change is already here and building that into the response coming out of COVID-19.

Toronto Declares a Climate Emergency

On October 2nd, 2019, Toronto City Council passed a climate emergency declaration and committed to accelerated action in this Council term. City of Toronto city staff will release a new report in Q4 that will show how Toronto gets to net-zero by 2050 and see if they can speed up to get to net-zero by 2040.

Letter to Infrastructure and Environment Committee

In early January 2019, MobilizeTO sent another letter with the signature of more groups: ClimateFast, Toronto Environmental Alliance, Climate Action Now!, Pax Christi, Toronto Pale Blue Dot, The Leap, and Toronto350 to all the City of Toronto Councillors on the committee, to again take the urgency of climate change seriously by setting a target of reaching net zero carbon emissions by 2025 and updating them on the new science.