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British Columbia going ‘carbon neutral’ Shows way to Canadian provinces by targeting 33% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020, but takes easier road than California Gary Park For Petroleum News
British Columbia’s resolve to outdo California in curbing greenhouse gas emissions has moved into high gear, with the tabling of legislation that Premier Gordon Campbell boasts has the “most aggressive” reduction targets in North America.
The trouble is, Campbell’s own Environment Minister Barry Penner is not quite so emphatic.
Bill 44, the centerpiece of British Columbia’s pledge to create a “carbon neutral government,” legislates a 33 percent cut in 2007 GHG levels by 2020 and 80 percent by 2050.
It also requires that “realistic, economically viable interim targets” be set by the end of 2008 for the 2012-16 period.
Shane Simpson, environmental spokesman for the opposition New Democratic Party in the B.C. legislature, accused the Campbell government of “backpedaling on its long-term commitment,” by using 2007 as the baseline for its 2050 target, compared with the 1990 baseline used by California and some European Union countries.
He said that means B.C. is committed to reducing GHGs by only 58 percent by 2050, compared with California’s 80 percent goal.
Penner conceded B.C. will not lead the way in 2050, but insisted the province will lead the way in 2020 and remain “competitive” by 2050.
B.C. would be first province to legislate GHG reductions Bill 44 makes B.C. the first of Canada’s 10 provinces to enshrine GHG reductions in legislation and, Campbell said, signals a “turning point in confronting global warming and protection of the environment.”
The seven-page bill also includes:
• A cap-and-trade system, imposing firm limits on the emissions from large (as yet unspecified) industries, while allowing them to participate in emissions trading systems;
• Adopting California tailpipe standards for new vehicles, requiring car manufacturers’ vehicle fleets to be “progressively more efficient and clean”;
• Introducing a low-carbon fuel standard, requiring distributors of fuels such as gasoline and diesel to reduce the carbon content of those fuels by 10 percent by 2020; and
• Providing authority for the regulation and capture of landfill gases.
“Climate change is a monumental challenge that means we have to think beyond the present and to imagine and plan for the type of future that we want the next generation of British Columbians to inherit,” Campbell said.
“We are taking decisive and necessary action to confront the global warming crisis, but we’re doing it in a way that will increase our quality of life and support our economy through increased innovation and new technologies.”
Government will go carbon neutral The government plans to set its own example by requiring all departments and agencies and educational institutions to become carbon neutral in 2010.
Penner said B.C. will be the first government in North America to order all public sector organizations to issue an annual public report on their emissions levels, on steps they have taken to reduce those levels and what plans they have to minimize emissions.
Lisa Matthaus, a spokeswoman for the Sierra Club of B.C., downplayed arguments that B.C. will trail California by 2050 and credited the government for “continuing to show leadership” in tackling climate change.
“Having the government set targets for both 2020 and 2050 puts in motion a whole bunch of requirements in terms of getting tools and incentives and regulations in place,” she told reporters.
“Once we have that ball rolling, I think we will not only meet, but exceed the targets. But given this is setting a precedent for Canada, we hope that B.C.’s emissions law will be an effective one, with accountability provisions hardwired into it,” Matthaus said.
There was also praise for the government from Andrew Weaver, one of 22 people named to a government advisory panel, which will recommend interim GHG targets for the 2012-16 period.
A professor at the University of Victoria’s School of Earth and Ocean Sciences, he was one of nine team members on an Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a joint winner of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize.
Weaver was unhesitating in describing the Campbell government’s action as a “dream come true. … Here in B.C. we are taking leadership on the climate portfolio, not only in Canada, but internationally.”
A self-described skeptic of government and political measures on climate change, he said the B.C. targets are “completely realistic and utterly necessary,” adding that the panel has been “asked not to hold back” in its recommendations.
However, Matthaus gave the petroleum industry cause for some anxiety, saying the legislation will place a “carbon lens” on all government policies and programs, including oil and gas subsidies which have been at the core of B.C.’s robust exploration and development efforts in its conventional oil and gas activities and a growing interest in unconventional plays, including tight gas, shale gas and coalbed methane.
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