Hamilton’s Carbon Budget and Accounting Framework is currently a corporate-wide policy that once fully implemented will guide the City’s approach for calculating greenhouse gas emissions from all city-led projects. This standardized and systematic approach will be critical for the City to achieve its long-term climate goals of reaching net-zero emissions by 2050. 

This framework was developed through technical calculations using the C40’s Convergence and Contraction Methodology based on a global “fair-share” approach.

Vision

To create a carbon budget framework that unites all of Hamilton in transparent, science-based climate action, empowering all sectors to reduce emissions, and build a sustainable future together.

Guiding Principles: 

The definition of a carbon budget is the total net amount of carbon dioxide (CO₂) that can still be emitted by human activities while limiting global warming to a specific level. A carbon budget is like a regular budget—but instead of budgeting to a maximum amount of money, it focuses on the maximum amount of greenhouse gas pollution we can release into the air, with the intent to reduce greenhouse gas emissions over time in order to prevent catastrophic climate impacts.

Hamilton’s Carbon Budget is based the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Sixth Assessment Report which highlights to have a 67% probability of keeping global warming within 1.5˚ C temperature increase the world collectively needs to keep global emissions to no more than 400 gigatonnes.

The global carbon budget is then broken down between:

• A community-wide carbon budget which includes all sources of emissions from the community including major sector like Industry, Transportation, Buildings, Solid Waste, Wastewater and Agriculture.
• A corporate-wide carbon budget as a function of the community carbon budget and includes corporate emissions from city-owned assets including buildings, fleet vehicles, wastewater treatment plants, and landfills.

Hamilton’s Carbon Budget and Accounting Framework is comprised of two corporate-wide policies, combined with detailed processes, tools, calculators, and reporting strategies in order to effectively implement.

• 2026-2027 Two-Division Pilot Phase Begin implementing Carbon Budget and Accounting Framework
• Q2 2027 Staff Recommendation Report To recommend approach for scaling across the Corporation
• 2027-2028 Projects >$250,000 Begin with large new capital projects to implement Carbon Budget and Accounting Framework (if approved)
• 2028-2029 All Capital Projects All capital projects to implement Carbon Budget and Accounting Framework (if approved)
• 2029-2030 Capital and Operation Projects All new capital and operational projects to implement Carbon Budget and Accounting Framework (if approved).