Developing a Community Energy and Emissions Plan
Welcome to the Cumberland County Community Energy and Emissions Plan (CEEP) Page.
The Municipality of the County of Cumberland has been working towards building a strong more climate-resilient community. This means reducing energy and GHG emissions while making adjustments to plan for climate change and the associated impacts. We have been investing in green energy infrastructure, developing efficient processes, and making conscious decisions that benefit the community, the economy, and the environment. The Municipality is a part of the Partners for Climate Protection (PCP) program through the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) and the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI) Canada. We are committed to doing our part to slow the impacts of climate change.
To build on these initiatives, the Municipality is currently developing a Community Energy and Emissions Plan (CEEP).
What is a CEEP and why is it important?
A CEEP will create a roadmap for the Municipality and community to further address climate change through greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reductions. The CEEP is a strategic plan to guide our community in reducing our consumption of energy from sources which release GHG emissions into the atmosphere, contributing to climate change. By implementing actions within the CEEP, we will work towards:
- becoming a more energy-independent, resilient and sustainable community
- reducing our contribution to the effects of climate change.
How will we develop the Plan?
To prepare a CEEP, we need to understand how we, both as a municipality and a community, use energy. We need to quantify how much of the most common GHG-producing types of energy (oil, gas, electricity, etc.) is used to heat and cool buildings, to move people and products around, and produce things. Basically, we need to know how much energy we use and how we use it. This will give all of us an appreciation for how much it costs and the impacts it has on our quality of life and the environment, and most importantly, the changes we need to make to reduce our emissions.
The Municipality is working with the consulting firm, Stantec, to help us assemble our CEEP. Stantec has been working closely with Municipal officials to complete a baseline report on the existing inventories of GHG emissions, forecast future GHG emissions, and identify potential energy and GHG reduction measures.
The CEEP Plan will include:
- corporate and community GHG emission reduction targets for the years 2030 and 2050,
- provision of strategies for meeting the proposed GHG targets, and
- the development of monitoring frameworks to track progress.
The strategies in the CEEP will consider the social, environmental, health, and economic benefits to generate a comprehensive gameplan that will lead to the future success of the municipality, its residents, and its businesses.
Where we are now & where we are going:
One of the initial steps in the CEEP process is to understand what activities we engage in and how they consumer energy, how much energy we do use, and how much GHG we create because of those activities. This is called an energy and emissions inventory. Stantec worked closely with the Municipality to develop a baseline report of the existing investory of GHG emissions from the community.
The inventory from 2023 shows that residents and businesses consumed more than 3.4 million gigajoules of energy - mostly in the form of electricity, heating oil, gasoline and diesel fuel. This led to a total of 314,000 tonnes of carbon emissions, or about 16 tonnes per person.
Stantec has also projected the community's GHG emissions moving forward if no actions were taken. Based on changing demographics, the greening of the electrical grid planned in Nova Scotia, and policies, like phasing out of the sale of light duty fossil fuel powered vehicles in 2035, our projected GHG emissions, if we maintain business as usual, are anticipated to decline by 37% by 2050.
Further details on the breakdown of GHG emissions by source and the business-as-usual projection can be found in the Cumberland County - CEEP Process and Emissions Summary document available for download.
Click here to read the CEEP Final Draft presented to council in February 2025.
Geothermal
Click here to read the Geothermal Greenhouse Action Plan.
Click here to read the Geothermal Summary Report