Vancouver and Quebec recently banned certain kinds of fossil fuel-based heating in new home construction. Similar — and, in some cases more extensive — bans are happening around the world, from Norway to New York City. The goal? To cut CO2 emissions from buildings by replacing fossil fuel burning with electric heating. But are such bans necessary? And what impact will they have on people who live in those cities? Here’s a closer look.

At least two jurisdictions have implemented recent restrictions on fossil fuel heating:

• Vancouver: Starting Jan. 1, 2022, equipment for space and hot water heating in new low-rise residential buildings must be zero emissions. By 2025, all new and replacement heating and hot water systems must be zero emissions.
• Quebec: Starting Dec. 31, 2021, oil-powered heating has been banned in new construction projects. After Dec. 31, 2023, it will be illegal to replace existing furnaces with any sort of heating system powered by fossil fuels.

It’s happening now because of attempts to: 

• reach net-zero emissions.
• drastically cut methane. 

Reaching net-zero emissions by 2050 is a key goal of the Paris Agreement on climate change. Canada itself has also committed to reaching net-zero emissions by 2050.

During the recent United Nations COP26 climate summit in Glasgow, Canada and more than 80 other countries signed a Global Methane Pledge to cut emissions of methane — a greenhouse gas far more potent than carbon dioxide — by at least 30 per cent below 2020 levels by 2030.

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