Toronto Atmospheric Fund

Toronto Atmospheric Fund (TAF) Toronto, Canada - Established in December 1992 as a result of efforts by Toronto City Council alderman Tony O'Donohue. As a member of the City Executive Committee, O’Donohue, a civil engineer, successfully convinced City Council that $23 million – 20% of the moneys received by the City from the sale of its Jail Farm – should be used to establish TAF. He was appointed chairman.

The objectives of TAF were straightforward:

- To promote global climate stabilization by the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions through education, scientific research and technology development;

- To promote public understanding of global warming and its implications.

- To create carbon sinks and promote energy conservation and efficiency;

- To provide support and funding for projects related to energy efficiency and global climate stabilization in co-operation with governments and NGOs.

First Major Funding

As a first project, TAF began to replace the 42,000 incandescent streetlights in Toronto with metal halide. This was a joint project, with TAF funding the project and Toronto Hydro supervising the work. It cost almost $15 million to finish the project but saved about 75% in electricity consumption.

In the euphoric aftermath of the Rio Environmental Summit (June 1992), Tony O’Donohue led TAF into supporting a project in a developing country. He approached CARE Canada and shortly after a project was developed with the City of San Pedro Sula, Honduras. This would be in keeping with the spirit of the Rio Conference – a first world city lending a hand to a city in a developing country.

The idea was simple, TAF would provide some money, CARE Canada would manage the project and provide some money and San Pedro Sula would have a small investment and be fully involved in the planning and development of the project. It was a three year project that covered a diversity of issues: protecting a watershed, controlling erosion, planting trees, educating and working with farmers on crop development and keeping them on the land. TAF provided $200,000 to the project for the first year, with an understanding that it would be reviewed each year.

Reaction to the Honduras Project

In the summer of 1994, the Toronto Star and the Globe and Mail carried articles questioning the role of TAF in San Pedro Sula. The articles suggested planting trees in Ontario and not in another country. When city politicians read the article, especially six months before an election, they were immediately hostile to the project, saying that it was a waste of money which could have been better spent at home.

Councillor O’Donohue took much of the blame for the project. By that time, the promises of the Rio Summit were in tatters. It was as if the Rio Summit never happened. The rich countries had abandoned any meaningful commitments they had made to help poorer countries. The gap between the rich and poor was widening and getting worse. It was devastating for those who had concern for the future environmental heath of the planet.

The TAF Board, after some discussion, decided to postpone the second year funding of the project until after the November 1994 municipal election. TAF Chairman O’Donohue was not re-elected to City Council or to the TAF board. With Councillor Dan Leckie as the new chairman in 1995, TAF withdrew from the San Pedro Sula project.

Two years later in early 1996, Cameron Smith, a well known environmental columnist with the Toronto Star decided to visit San Pedro Sula to have a look at the project. On his return, he wrote an account of the project, calling it "the most impressive undertaking of its kind I have ever seen." He added that the project was so successful for the local area that other areas in Honduras were planning to copy it.

References

Front Row Centre, Tony O'Donohue – 2000 – ISBN 1-894584-03-1

The Tale of a City, Tony O'Donohue - Re-Engineering the Urban Environment – 2005 ISBN 10: 1-55002-556-2; ISBN-13: 978-1-55002-556-9