Extreme heat is here. The climate crisis is bringing much hotter temperatures during heat waves, for longer, more often.
We need to think urgently about protecting people from the heat they are feeling now, but we also find new ways to stop burning oil and gas to calm the heat waves of the future, which we know will be much more deadly.
The fact that heat waves are more deadly now is indisputably because we are burning too much natural gas, oil, gasoline, and other fossil fuels, which raises temperatures worldwide.
This June, both Europe and North America were hit by severe heat waves. In Europe, a massive heat dome blanketed the continent, with temperatures in Paris reaching an astounding 40ºC. Here in Toronto, we are just about to enter the summer’s second heatwave after the late June scorcher with humidex readings well into the 40s.
Europe has already recorded over ten thousand excess deaths from the Late June European heat dome. During the 2021 heat dome in British Columbia, over six hundred people perished — 98% of whom were indoors.
What we can do right now: A Maximum Temperature Bylaw & Heat Relief
For a few years now, TEA has been working with a coalition of tenants, doctors, community groups, and more to advocate for more heat relief in Toronto. This led to the City of Toronto’s first indoor cooling benefit program, which installs air conditioning for residents most vulnerable to the heat. This year, over 3000 units will have been installed by the City.
The most impactful heat relief step the City can take right now is implementing a Maximum Temperature Bylaw to cap indoor temperatures at 26ºC for rental units across the City.
This would not be a new type of policy. In the 1950s, the City of Toronto implemented a Minimum Heat Bylaw that ensured rental units in the city provide adequate heating for residents during winter. We’ve done this sort of thing before, and we can do it again. And the City has full legislative authority to do it.
At the June meeting of Toronto City Council, TEA and our allies successfully accelerated the time frame so that a bylaw would be brought to council before next summer This acceleration will ensure that a bylaw will come faster while also giving the City some time to smooth out many of the technical challenges such a bylaw would bring.
To stop future temperatures from getting even hotter, we need to stop burning fuels.
These heat waves are not natural. The unfortunate reality is that extreme heat will get worse and worse as long as we keep burning natural gas, gasoline, and other fossil fuels for energy.
Thankfully, zero carbon solutions are plentiful. Solar panels are the cheapest way to create electricity ever known by man. And electric air-sourced heat pumps are now widely available, working, and more economical, providing both cooling and heating while minimizing or even eliminating the need to burn natural gas or other fossil fuels completely.
The City needs to prioritize actions to help Torontonians shift to heat pumps. To do this, they must stop delaying actions like building standards which would spark a widespread shift, and keep offering good programs like the HELP program or furnace replacement program to get people off gas heating. Toronto should also continue to improve transit and make cycling safer to help people get where they need to go quickly, and burn less gasoline in cars.
Moving forward together:
We can protect people from extreme heat. And we can also convert our society to a fossil free one so that extreme heat events don’t get worse.
To do that, we need to work together.
Stay tuned for more updates from TEA on this issue throughout the summer. You can find our media release with more information and quotes here.