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BC wrestles with carbon levels
Gary Park for Petroleum News
British Columbia’s fondly held goal of being a global role-model for reducing greenhouse gas emissions made little progress in the decade after 2007 when the province became one of the world’s first jurisdictions to impose a carbon tax on gasoline, along with other measures.
Data released by the British Columbia Ministry of Environment and Climate Change showed GHG emissions dropped by only a fraction from 64.76 million metric tons in 2007 to 64.46 million metric tons in 2017.
Environment Minister George Heyman was quick to acknowledge the disappointing results.
“There’s no question we have a lot of work to do and we have no question that it’s challenging, not just for us, obviously, but for Canada and the world,” he said.
Andrew Weaver, leader of the B.C. Green Party which is keeping the NDP government of Premier John Horgan in power, said ordinary British Columbians are doing their part to fight carbon output, but industry emissions are largely rising.
He said the province’s carbon tax has spurred innovations in the green economy and prompted people to conserve energy, but government programs to advance LNG projects and support oil and gas production will only increase GHG emissions.
Carbon tax British Columbia introduced North America’s first broad-based move in 2008 to tax carbon pollution, which currently stands at C$40 per metric ton and is scheduled to reach C$50 in 2021, matching the federal government’s timetable.
CleanBC, a government agency, has set targets to cut GHG emissions by 40% by 2030, 60% by 2040 and 80% by 2050 and will require new buildings to achieve net-zero energy consumption by 2032 and all new cars to be zero-emission by 2040.
Carbon tax revenues offer incentives to energy-efficient initiatives.
Emissions data is published every second year and tracks GHG emissions from most industries including transportation, mining, waste and oil and gas, plus emissions from domestic vehicles.
The ministry said 2017 emissions dropped in several sectors, including petroleum, oil and gas extraction, road transport and public electricity and heat production.
Heyman said B.C. continues to have a strong economy despite the carbon tax but conceded that the emissions increases stemmed mostly from the province’s economic growth.
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