Julia Langer

Dear election candidates: Climate action means working across issues and regional lines

10/2022 - To handle the complex and intersectional issues that face our region, hopeful new leaders will need to follow the carbon and collaborate.

Electric car plugged into an EV charging station

Budget 2022 – urban climate action highlights

4/2022 - The 2022 budget includes funding and investment dollars for key urban climate solutions to help drive down emissions by 2030 and beyond. As always, their impact will depend on effective roll-out, which cities, local utilities and businesses, home and building owners, citizens and organizations like TAF are eager to provide.

Ontario’s repeated failure to produce a natural gas conservation plan

9/2021 - The Ontario Energy Board delayed approving a new natural gas conservation plan, extended the old framework to 2022, and froze the budget without even adjusting for inflation. Real investment in gas conservation shrinks, even while diverse voices make a case for increasing investment in cost-effective conservation.

Budget 2021 is a healthy dose for the clean economy, but climate measures lack potency

4/2021 - Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland just announced $101.4 billion in new spending. With the trend toward increasing emissions in the Great Toronto and Hamilton Area and other cities across Canada, there are welcome investments in Budget 2021 to support urban climate action, but a critical missing link is missing.

Toronto has an embarrassing gas problem

2/2021 - Toronto cannot achieve the net-zero carbon emissions target adopted by City Council unless Ontario’s gas-fired power plants are phased out. That's why council should adopt this motion as soon as possible.

Why Canadians need the clean fuel standard

12/2020 - The clean fuel standard establishes a practical and predictable approach for removing 30 million tonnes of carbon every year without affecting daily life.

Beyond financing: how workforce capacity can support big investments

10/2020 - As we seek to “build back better,” even capital markets have a role to play by investing in a fair, responsible recovery.

A throne speech worthy of the next generation

9/2020 - If we asked a child of the next generation to look back at vintage footage of Canada’s 2020 throne speech, from the era of pandemic and wildfires, what would they need to hear?

Big Canadian moment for climate: unique model goes national

9/2020 - With the increasing urgency of the climate crisis, it’s out with incrementalism and in with big investments. New tools and new hope just landed

Investing in retrofits is no longer an “if” – here’s the “how”

4/2020 - A "one-stop shop" approach can get retrofit projects off the ground fast.

Scaling and focusing for greatest impact

4/2019 - As a learning organization, TAF regularly reviews its progress, learns from failures and successes, and considers how the outside world affects us. We recently undertook this process in order to update our strategic plan for the 2019-2022 period.

Ontario environment plan needs a better bang for its buck

3/2019 - Let’s focus on a potential opportunity: how Ontario can accelerate private sector investment in the transition to a low-carbon economy. Specifically, the proposed Ontario Carbon Trust (OCT) can succeed if it uses public funds to mobilize private capital and deliver local climate solutions.