West Vancouver council will vote on Monday (March 15) to receive a report from the district's Climate Change Working Group.

The Community Climate Action Plan report, called "Towards Fossil Fuel Freedom", endorses the province's call to reduce greenhouse gases by 33 percent below the 2007 level by 2020. It also supports the provincial call for an 80 percent reduction by 2050.

"In order to meet these reduction targets, West Vancouver and its residents will have to depart from business as usual and look for opportunities in such areas as home heating, home energy efficiency, and consider the impacts on greenhouse gas contributions as a result of our transportation needs," the report states.

The Climate Change Working Group is comprised of eight citizens and Coun. Trish Panz.

Their report notes that in 2007, West Vancouver emitted 286,941 tonnes of greenhouse gases. Of those, 53 percent were from buildings and 44 percent were from transportation sources. Approximately 1.3 percent came from District of West Vancouver operations.

"Towards Fossil Fuel Freedom" includes 19 recommendations. They include supporting, promoting, and educating the public about the benefits of home energy audits and retrofits. There's also a call to support and promote neighbourhood and multifamily retrofit projects.

The group suggests considering mandatory measures in 2015 if retrofits are not meeting municipal targets for greenhouse-gas reductions.

In addition, the group recommends that land-use decisions consider the impact on transportation requirements. Another recommendation involves supporting local food-production initiatives on underutilized public land in West Vancouver.

West Vancouver's manager of sustainability, Stephen Jenkins, wrote an accompanying report telling council it has three options:

* "Accept the report and endorse the recommendations."

* "Ask staff for further information on aspects of the report and request a follow up report."

* "Require a third party review on aspects of the report and CCAP and request a report back to council."

Jenkins also recommended in his report that council vote in favour of asking B.C. Hydro for a $10,000 grant to fund the "Mayors Task Force on Climate Change". In addition, he recommended that council ask staff to return with an implementation plan and a report card for the district to tackle climate change.

Under the Local Government (Green Communities) Statute Amendment Act, local governments are required to include targets, policies, and actions to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions in their Official Community Plan by May 31, 2010.

Follow Charlie Smith on Twitter at twitter.com/csmithstraight.